《TAIPEI TIMES》 Woman handed 11-year term in Australian poisoning case

Australian Alex Shorey, center, is pictured at the Taipei District Court on March 11. Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

By Hollie Younger / Staff writer, with CNA A Taiwanese woman was yesterday sentenced to 11 years and two months in prison for the attempted murder of Alex Shorey, an Australian exchange student, who was hospitalized after ingesting rodenticide in 2023.

The Taipei District Court convicted Yang Chin-ping （楊錦屏）, in her late 40s, over the poisoning of Shorey when he was a 24-year-old Chinese-language student at a school in northern Taiwan.

Shorey was admitted to an intensive care and later medically evacuated out of Taiwan.

He had planned to return to Australia and cut off contact with Yang, with whom he was in an open relationship, leading her to poison him multiple times to stop him from leaving, prosecutors said.

The first incident occurred on March 24, 2023, when she put poison in his grape juice, they said.

He was hospitalized with nosebleeds and a stomachache, they added.

On April 10, she poisoned him with the rodenticide superwarfarin, which caused symptoms including hypovolemic shock and dehydration, they said.

When Shorey’s father arrived in Taiwan to arrange his return to Australia for treatment on April 16, 2023, Yang poisoned him again and tricked his father into signing a form refusing admission to the intensive care unit, prosecutors said, adding that his father insisted he be treated regardless.

Once Shorey recovered enough to return to Australia in May that year, Yang poisoned him by mixing rat poison with blood pressure medication, putting Shorey in critical condition, prosecutors said.

Shorey’s mother discovered an empty bottle of rat poison in his rental accommodation, they added.

Shorey testified that while he was receiving treatment, Yang insisted that doctors communicate in Chinese rather than English and translated for him herself.

The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Yang in December 2024 for attempted murder.

At the trial in May, Yang denied the charges, saying she had no intention to harm Shorey.

She said the rat poison had been intended for herself, as she was struggling with the death of her late husband, and accused prosecutors of taking her statements out of context.

The court said Yang was unhappy with Shorey’s decision to leave Taiwan and she continued poisoning him despite witnessing his suffering.

The crime was carefully planned and carried out through cruel means, it said, adding that Yang denied the charges, showed no remorse and made no effort to apologize or compensate the victim.

Her repeated actions showed indifference to whether Shorey lived or died and amounted to conditional intent to kill, the judges said.

The verdict can be appealed. Shorey’s parents returned to Taiwan to testify in March.

His attorney said the sentence was within the legal team’s expectations, and was “reasonable” and “fair” under Taiwan’s laws on attempted murder.

Shorey and his family have filed a civil lawsuit, he added.

Additional reporting by Weng Ching-yu 新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES