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- Mariangela Cerrato, 53, began to spike her colleague’s drink with benzodiazepine powder, a tranquilizer, during the daily coffee run for her team after hearing laying off rumors.
- Police found a cappuccino sample which the victim kept to have an “extremely high” dose of benzodiazepine and then secretly filmed Cerrato mixing the powder.
- Cerrato has denied the accusation and will appeal her sentence while the insurance company she worked for said they did not have any lay off plans at the time and were recruiting.
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An Italian woman has been jailed for four years after lacing a colleague’s coffee with drugs for nine months.
Mariangela Cerrato, 53, first began to spike Alice Bordon’s drink with benzodiazepine powder, a tranquilizer, while making daily coffee runs for their team at an insurance company in Bra, Piedmont, after hearing lay off rumors in 2017, Sky News reported.
She and the victim worked in similar roles and Cerrato launched the poisoning campaign hoping to get her fired from her job.
Cristiano Burdese, the lawyer for the victim, told La Stampa: “The drug induces fatigue, headaches, dizziness and muscular pain and my client’s work rate slowed after she drank the cappuccino.”
Bordon only realized something was wrong when she crashed her car into a tree on her way home from work. She always feeling healthy at home but doctors were unable to find any issues, according to The Independent.
She became convinced of foul play involving the daily beverage had something when Cerrato pressured her to have coffee in the office and said: "Come on, I will bring you a coffee, what harm can it do you?" her fears only grew.
Bordon decided to keep a sample of the cappuccino which she took to the police who found that it contained an "extremely high" dose of benzodiazepine tranquilizer and then secretly filmed Cerrato mixing the powder, Lad Bible added.
Benzodiazepine is a psychoactive drug often known as brand names Valium and Xanax. It is prescribed to those with anxiety or sleeping disorders.
Cerrato has denied drugging her colleague and will appeal her sentence.
The insurance company she worked for said they did not have any plans to lay off employees at the time but were, in fact, on a recruitment drive, Sky News added.