Hong Kong - A mentally-ill Hong Kong woman was Wednesday sent to a psychiatric hospital for seven years for poisoning churchgoers by giving them cakes laced with psychotropic drugs. Jannifer Chan Mei-fung, 37, left the cakes as a gift for members of the Church of Christian and Missionary Alliance in August last year, the city's district court was told.
Three teenagers ended up in hospital, two in intensive care, after the cakes were served up at a youth group meeting later the same day.
Tests found a psychotropic drug inside the cakes, and police said they found the same drug when they later raided the defendant's home. She told officers it had been prescribed to her by doctors.
Unemployed Chan was found guilty of administering a poison with the intention of endangering life and was committed to a psychiatric hospital for the maximum possible term of seven years.
Judge Joseph Yau described Chan as "a dangerous character" who not only suffered from paranoia but was also manipulative and cunning and in desperate need of treatment.
The judge said it was "pure luck" that the teenagers recovered from their ordeal and said the public needed to be protected from people like Chan.
