The mystery of how a pan of carrot and coriander soup was poisoned at a top public school remained unsolved yesterday after a kitchen porter was cleared by a jury.
Maxwell Cook, 58, had been charged with attempting to administer poison after bleach was poured into the soup at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire.
Aylesbury Crown Court was told that about 100 pupils and staff at the school could have eaten the soup on March 11 last year had it been served.
The jury took just 2½ hours to find Mr Cook not guilty of trying to administer poison with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy.
He told police after his arrest: “I walked past the stoves where there were two pots, with a container of bleach in my hand, and glanced down to see what was on the menu that night.”
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Giving evidence in court, he said there was “no way” his hand could have been raised above the pot and “no way” he could have tipped in the cleaning product by mistake.
The strong bleach found in the soup is usually used to unblock drains and if ingested can cause irritation, vomiting and swelling of the throat.
Louise Samples, a trainee chef, told the court that she had seen Mr Cook pouring the bleach into the soup, which had been made by a fellow trainee, Charlie Lambrianou.
Mr Cook was asked in court whether he though Ms Samples, 21, was the true culprit. He replied: “She could have done. It’s possible,” adding that he did not actually know.
Mark Grace, an assistant chef at the school, told the court that the soup tasted “bitter and chemically”. He sampled the soup four times and rather than getting better, it got worse.
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“It was blatant. You could smell it in the soup. It was very strong,” he said. “I have worked in catering for 15 years and it has quite a distinctive smell, the de-stainer.”
Denise Stanworth, a forensic scientist, said she found only a small amount bleach in the soup. “It’s hard to judge exactly, but there would have been about two or three tablespoons-full in five litres of soup,” she said.
Past pupils at the school, which charges up to £27,000 a year, include Sir Richard Branson, the journalist Sir Peregrine Worsthorne and George Melly, the jazz singer and writer.