Monday 28 May 2012

'Animal rights protestors'...or a codeine addict?

Christopher McGuire has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for tampering with boxes of Nurofen Plus. He was a codeine addict after a cheap fix:

McGuire, who went to university at 16, took 32 Nurofen Plus tablets a day to feed his secret habit. But after losing his job he struggled to pay for his addiction.

The 31-year-old's scheme saw him fill empty packets with the Seroquel he was being prescribed for schizophrenia.

The court heard how McGuire then tried to buy Nurofen Plus at pharmacies using a card he knew would be declined. This created the distraction he needed to discreetly swap his doctored packet for a fresh one and walk away. 

Compare that explanation to the Mail's front page story on 26 August 2011, written by Jenny Hope and Colin Fernandez:

Dangerous anti-psychotic drugs may have been deliberately placed in thousands of packets of Nurofen Plus by animal rights activists, it emerged last night...

It is suspected militant activists carried out the sabotage operation with the intention of damaging Nurofen Plus's makers, Reckitt Benckiser. The company may have been targeted because it tests its products on animals.

3 comments:

  1. One of the best from the Mail. No evidence in the story, and so poorly sourced that it wasn't even picked up by other churnalists. There is not even any evidence that the company tests on animals. Simply made up: astonishing that someone can get paid for just imagining things.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish I could get paid for imagining things. I'd love to be a world famous fantasy author.

      Delete
  2. But as many people who read the paper will now go to their graves believing the story to be true (and remember, the 'apology' will be 5pt on the bottom of page 63), the aim has been achieved. Job done.

    ReplyDelete

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