Fed: Extortion case focuses on victims

AAP General News (Australia)
12-06-2000
Fed: Extortion case focuses on victims

By Steve Connolly

BRISBANE, Dec 6 AAP - A police investigation into Australia's long-running headache
tablet extortion case today focused on the Brisbane home of two poisoning victims.

Detectives continued to search a house in Brisbane's west for scientific evidence in
the Herron and Panadol extortion case, police said.

Police raided a home at leafy Chapel Hill yesterday and took three people - two men
and a woman - away for questioning.

But they were released last night without any charges being laid.

Queensland police spokesman Brian Swift said detectives would continue to conduct interviews
today.

Police have linked the poisoning in March of a Brisbane father and son, who had taken
Herron tablets, with the June poisoning of a middle-aged Brisbane couple who took Panadol.

All the victims were from neighbouring areas in Brisbane's inner west.

The couple, a man aged 61 and a woman aged 54, and their step son were taken in for
questioning yesterday.

Thirty-three other potential witnesses from in and around Brisbane were also interviewed.

"We believe that the extortionist responsible for the offences against Panadol and
indeed the Queensland pharmaceutical company, Herron, is the same person," New South Wales
Crime Agencies Chief Superintendent Rod Harvey said yesterday in Sydney.

Police and media organisations were parked outside the long driveway leading to the
Chapel Hill house today as investigations continued.

Neighbours said they knew little about the couple whose home had been searched by police.

"I hardly ever saw them," said one woman, who asked not to be named.

"Everybody here is either at work or their kids have grown up."

Following both poisonings, Herron and Panadol's maker SmithKline Beecham recalled products
from sale and brought in new tamper-evident packaging.

After new demands in October it was announced Panadol would be sold only from behind
the counter - a move later extended to all paracetamol products.

Police revealed SmithKline Beecham had received three letters since late October, the
first in an empty Panadol packet which was believed to include a $2-million ransom demand.

Police believe the letter's method of delivery was to show the company that its packets
could be tampered with.

However, the letter did not indicate packaging had been tampered with or that the community's
health was at risk.

In mid-November police placed a letter to the editor and a gossip column item in the
Brisbane Courier-Mail newspaper in an attempt to warn the extortionist that letters sent
to SmithKline Beecham were taking a week to arrive because the writer was omitting the
postcode.

Police said the public was not told of the new extortion attempt because there was
no evidence of an immediate risk.

Media organisations cooperated with police to keep the new demand secret.

Supt Harvey said two more letters were received and there were indications a fourth
letter containing ransom instructions would arrive, but no letter was received.

"It is now apparent that the extortionist has broken off contact with SmithKline Beecham,"

he said.

AAP sc/mg/br

KEYWORD: PANADOL FOURTH DAYLEAD

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