A Boots pharmacist allegedly spiked a co-worker’s water bottle with a laxative to ‘teach her a lesson’. Shahan Mir, 34, was supervising a trainee when he allegedly added Lactulose to her drink while ‘her back was turned’, a trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard.
Farah Abdulquader spat out the liquid but later suffered with diarrhoea and vomiting. Mir later said he only moved his colleague’s water bottle because he had asked her to stop bringing it onto the shop floor.
But Andrew Baker, prosecuting, alleged Mir – a pharmacist of ten years – had slipped a laxative as a ‘form of retribution’. Mir, of Kings Heath, Birmingham, denies a charge of causing a noxious thing to be taken with intent to annoy.
Miss Abdulquader was serving a customer at the Fort Retail Park Boots branch in Erdington, when the incident occurred on March 21, 2018. Mr Barker said she took a sip from her water bottle and realised it was excessively sweet and the water had a yellow tinge. She became suspicious and asked the shop’s security officer to look at CCTV footage.
The prosecution told the court the footage showed Mir removing the bottle and a few seconds later replacing it. Mir was later interviewed and said he had asked Miss Abdulquader not to bring her own water on to the shop floor but she had continued to do so.
Mr Barker alleged Mir put about a millilitre of the laxative in the water, intending to show Miss Abdulquader ‘the risks of what could happen.’
He said: ‘The prosecution say there was animosity between the two. ‘His actions were at the very least foolish and, we would say, criminal. His intention was to annoy her at the very least.
‘Whether it was some form of retribution or to teach her a lesson, it was an incredibly stupid and criminal thing to do.’
The trial continues.
