Great Barr pensioner tagged after poisoning 50 police officers
Dec 7 2010 by Matt Lloyd, Birmingham Mail
A PENSIONER has been electronically tagged after poisoning almost 50 police officers as they battled to keep order on Birmingham’s streets.
Muriel Morris was hit with the punishment after she served up contaminated chicken and tuna sandwiches to officers policing an English Defence League demonstration.
Some were taken to hospital feeling as if they were going to die, Birmingham Magistrates’ Court heard.
Morris, 70, of Dorrington Green, Great Barr, admitted four charges of breaching food hygiene regulations.
She was tagged and ordered to obey an overnight curfew after District Judge Robert Zara accepted she could not pay a large fine.
He also imposed a four-month suspended sentence on her.
“Had this been a more vulnerable group it could have resulted in fatalities,” the judge told Morris.
A total of 47 officers were taken ill after more than 100 lunches were ordered by West Midlands Police from Morris’s Meal Machine cafe in Mount Street, Nechells, during demonstrations between the EDL and anti-fascism groups in Birmingham on July 3 last year.
She has since sold the business, the court heard.
The court heard some of the officers were left mentally scarred and even feared they would die because of the staphylococcus aureus infection.
Others passed out and required oxygen as they were taken to hospital by ambulance and another said he lost eight pounds in weight and suffered symptoms for a week.
In a statement, one officer said: “I thought my life was coming to an end.”
