Envirograf cleaner spiked colleagues’ coffee with Viagra, UK court hears

A cleaner spiked her colleagues’ coffee with Viagra, a UK court heard.

Karen Beale, 62, had worked at Envirograf, a fire safety product producer, for seven years when she was allegedly caught lacing Nescafe-branded instant coffee with a foreign substance.

She was filmed at the factory in Dover, Kent in September 2018 via a hidden camera after a staff member claimed her morning cup of coffee tasted odd.

The drink had blue and white specks in it, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

Police were informed, and it was later discovered that two coffee jars contained a number of abnormal “ingredients”.

These included sildenafil, an erectile dysfunction treatment sold under the Viagra brand, as well as a medication for high cholesterol.

“Not what you would expect to be in Nescafe,” said prosecutor Matthew Hodgetts at the start of Beale’s trial.

The 13-minute-long clip was said to have shown Beale wearing blue latex gloves as she picked up a jar of coffee, shook it, and removed the lid before placing it back on a shelf.

“The defendant had already put something in and was checking it was still there,” said Hodgetts.

Another clip showed the night cleaner her sleeve pulled over her bare hand in an attempt to avoid leaving fingerprints, the prosecution said.

Beale denies the two offences of attempting to administer a poison with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy between July 2017 and September 2018.

The court heard the contaminated jars of Nescafée Blend 37 were found in offices belonging to accountant Katrina Gravenor and company secretary Jean Smith.

Although the chemicals were not toxic or would “necessarily cause problems”, according to Hodgetts, it is alleged Beale, a mother of three, intended harm.

Hodgetts told the jury: “She was intending that there would be some effect on those two women by putting it in their coffee. That’s why the prosecution say she was attempting to poison.”

“She denies placing or attempting to place any substance into those coffee jars and is possibly going to suggest that these allegations against her are malicious in nature.

“But the prosecution say quite plainly those substances were put into those two women’s coffees [with the hope and intention] it would have some effect and, at the very least, [cause] some annoyance.”

The jury heard Gravenor installed the covert camera after she became suspicious regarding the look and taste of her beverage.

The court heard Gravenor, who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, even wrote a letter to her GP in August that year saying something was making her ill and she had “narrowed it down” to her coffee.

But the doctor told police Gravenor’s arthritis was “unlikely” to be linked to her drink.

A jar in Smith’s office was found to contain what a blue, white and pink granulated substance.

When she was interviewed by police and told about being filmed, Beale, of Winsley in Westbury, Shropshire, denied any wrongdoing but admitted she had “handled” the jar.

When asked during cross-examination by Hodgetts whether the alleged contamination was “an amusing power trip” for her, Beale replied: “I have never put anything in anybody’s coffee.”

The court also heard that following her arrest she was sacked by Envirograf for gross misconduct, a decision she appealed.

The trial continues.