Prosecution drops charges against worker in strawberry contamination case

A Queensland farm worker accused of inserting needles into strawberries to get back at her boss has claimed ‘complete vindication’ as charges were dropped on the morning her trial was set to begin.

The case against a Queensland woman accused of contaminating strawberries with needles has been dropped ahead of her trial, which was set to begin today.

My Ut Trinh was charged with eight counts of contaminating of goods with intent to cause economic loss.

It related to allegations she inserted needles into strawberries while working at a Sunshine Coast farm, sparking a countrywide agricultural crisis.

But prosecutors have this morning indicated they will not proceed with the case and Trinh has been discharged.

Former farm worker My Ut Trinh arriving at the Brisbane District Court on Wednesday morning. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Police had previously alleged Trinh, who worked for the Berrylicious/Berry Obsession farm in southeast Queensland, contaminated strawberries in September 2018 out of “spite” for her employer over a disagreement about paying for a speeding fine.

Trinh was arrested and charged in November 2018.

The discovery of the needles sparked chaos, causing strawberries to be stripped from shelves nationwide forcing farmers to dump tonnes of the fruit.

The incident sparked more than 200 malicious copycat cases with a number of people caught on supermarket CCTV tampering with fruit.

The spate of cases also caused the government to enact the Criminal Code Amendment Food Contamination Bill, making the intentional reckless contamination of goods an offence against the Commonwealth and increased the maximum penalty to 15 years imprisonment.

Dumped strawberries at a farm near Caboolture. File picture

Outside court, defence lawyer Nick Dore said Ut wanted to express her thanks to the people who believed in and supported her over the years.

“She sees today as being complete vindication in relation to what has occurred,” Mr Dore said.

“The decision made by the Director of Public Prosecutions was the right decision to be made when considering all of the evidence that was produced throughout the course of the very long and convoluted prosecution.”

Mr Dore said the charges being dropped was a “huge relief” for his client.

“At this stage she would just like to maintain a little bit of privacy and try to maintain some sort or normalcy for the foreseeable future,” he said.

“The decision was made by the DPP when they assessed the evidence as to whether they could maintain a conviction or support a conviction.”

When asked how she was feeling about the charges being dropped, Trinh, who speaks minimal English told media “yeah really good thank you”.

Trinh was surrounded by a number of supporters who told reporters they had always believed she was innocent.

The District Court trial had been listed to run for four weeks with dozens of witnesses expected to be called.

Two translators had been appointed to work in shifts to translate for Vietnamese refugee Trinh who is now an Australian citizen.

The decision to abandon the case came after prosecutors conceded they were unlikely to secure a conviction based on the evidence.

“Following legal argument over the past two days on evidential matters, a determination was made this morning that the Crown no longer had a reasonable prospect of securing a conviction in this matter and it was discontinued,” a spokesperson from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said.

The industry was hit by a number of copycat incidents. File picture

Berries Australia executive director Rachel Mackenzie said there was “widespread disappointment” in the strawberry industry after the decision.

“The industry was looking for some closure on it,” she said.

“It did have an enormous impact both financial but also psychological as well. It was a very challenging time for the growers so the lack of closure on this is obviously challenging.”

Ms Mackenzie said the initial incident sparked hundreds of copycat cases and false claims on social media.

“Obviously there were significant volumes of fruit that had to be dumped because there were concerns and retailers stopped taking the fruit,” she said.

“This was in response to things that turned out to be false claims on social media with copycats.

“I think the whole phenomenon manifested, of course there was this original crime which we’d love to see someone charged with and actually brought to justice but we also have to remember it was the knock-on effects that really brought the industry to its knees.”

Ms Mackenzie said the Queensland community rallied to support strawberry farmers after the crisis.

The industry was crippled by the tampering crisis in 2018 and again faced more hardship in 2020 and this year with a severe shortage of workers due to coronavirus.

The shortage of workers has prompted the Queensland Strawberry Growers Association to launch a promotion in which workers in the industry have the chance to win a $100,000 prize at the end of the season.

Ms Mackenzie said the promotion was designed to attract workers to the industry which ordinarily relies heavily on backpackers.

Originally published as Prosecution drops charges against worker in strawberry contamination case