Sheep farmer guilty of planting metal fragments in baby food in Tesco blackmail plot
Thursday, August 27, 2020
A Lincolnshire sheep farmer has been found guilty of two counts of tainting food after he left three jars of baby food stashed in metal shrapnel in two Tesco stores.
Nigel Wright, from Market Rasen in Lincolnshire, attempted to blackmail £1.4m out of the supermarket chain.
He described how he had been forced to go to Rochdale by travellers who threatened to rape his wife and hang his children "from the trees"
The jury was told in written notes he wrote 'Imagine a baby's mouth cut open and blood pouring out, or the inside of their bellies cut and bleeding. You pay, you save them.
He described himself as a fictional figure - "Guy Brush""the Dairy Pirates" - and claimed to be part of a cohort of farmers infuriated by the low cost of their milk.
Tesco's discovery of the glass in Scotland led to a recall.
As recently as December 2019, Morven Smith was feeding a couple of spoons to her 10-month-old baby when she discovered "something shiny" in the bowl and pulled it out.
Wright then positioned the metal vessel on a shelf, before quietly wandering through the hallways to pick up wine and flowers for his teacher.