Taipei: A Taiwanese woman who repeatedly poisoned an Australian exchange student, leaving him in critical condition in intensive care, was sentenced to 11 years and two months in prison on Wednesday. The Taipei District Court convicted the woman, surnamed Yang, of attempted murder, describing her crime as premeditated, cruel, and showing disregard for human life.
According to Focus Taiwan, the court found that Yang poisoned then-23-year-old Alex Shorey at least three times with the rodenticide "superwarfarin" in 2023. This caused Shorey to suffer from hypovolemic shock and dehydration. The judges stated that Yang's repeated actions demonstrated indifference to Shorey's fate and amounted to conditional intent to kill.
Prosecutors revealed that Yang mixed the poison into Shorey's food and drinks to prevent him from returning to Australia after completing a Chinese-language program at a university in northern Taiwan. Shorey testified in March, as reported by the Chinese-language newspaper United Daily News, that he became seriously ill after consuming grape juice with a "strange" taste given by Yang, shortly after he mentioned his plans to leave Taiwan.
Shorey recounted confronting Yang, asking, "Are you poisoning me?" to which she apologized. However, she later gave him a grass jelly drink, after which he could not get out of bed and was hospitalized. He also testified that during his treatment, Yang insisted that doctors communicate in Chinese and translated for him, describing this period as "the worst time" of his life, where he "felt like I was dying."
Prosecutors stated that Shorey's mother discovered an empty bottle of rodenticide at Yang's residence while packing his belongings before his medical evacuation to Australia in April 2023. The court cited Yang's motive as her dissatisfaction with Shorey's decision to leave Taiwan and noted that she continued to poison him despite witnessing his suffering.
Yang denied the charges, claiming the rat poison was intended for herself due to her struggles with her late husband's death. She accused prosecutors of misconstruing her statements, while her lawyer sought an acquittal. Shorey's attorney commented after the ruling, stating that the sentence was within the legal team's expectations and deemed "reasonable" and "fair" under Taiwan's laws on attempted murder. He added that Shorey and his family have gradually recovered over the past three years and have filed a civil lawsuit seeking damages.