World
December 12, 2024 11:20
brussels, belgium - An engineer, inspired by a serial killer, poisoned his sick friend with thallium-laced tiramisu in hospital. How did it end?
But Gaël B. is still alive. The Belgian is forever confined to a wheelchair, unable to care for himself, living like a vegetable with no hope of improvement. He is more dead than alive, with only his brain still more or less functioning. 'I refuse to spend one more second of my life on that bastard,' he reportedly said before the trial against his family.
For years, B. was the victim of a macabre experiment. With thallium, commonly used as rat poison, the 33-year-old Gauthier tried to slowly torture 'his best friend.'
With a tiramisu adorned with cocoa flakes in the shape of a smiling face, Jean-François Gauthier showed up at the Brussels hospital where his close friend Gaël B. was fighting for his life in the spring of 2022. Even grape juice would do him good, the Uccle engineer had thought. A few days later, Gaël B. unexpectedly took a turn for the worse, to the surprise of the nursing staff.
Months earlier, Gaël B., son of a French army officer, had been rushed to the hospital. He was partially paralyzed, unable to speak, barely able to swallow or breathe, and was put in an artificial coma by emergency physicians. Was it a side effect of the coronavirus? A form of cancer? Food poisoning? No doctor could tell. Even the main medical hypothesis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, in which the nervous system is attacked and organs nearly fail, was not the cause.
Only Jean-François Gauthier knew the cause: thallium, a toxic substance used as rat poison. Extremely dangerous, not available for purchase by private individuals anywhere in Belgium. Of the caliber used by KGB spies to assassinate Russian 'dissidents' like Aleksandr Litvinenko, Sergei Skripal, or Alexei Navalny.
No one suspected that the man with the tiramisu had already tried to poison his best friend a second time. Even in the hospital. When emergency physicians traced the poison after months and reconstructed Gaël B.'s deterioration, linking it to the visitor logs, 'close friend' Gauthier came into focus. Much to the surprise of their mutual circle of friends.
Examining Gauthier's computer, including the erased hard drive, revealed a particular fascination with Graham Young. Almost an obsession. Young, also known as the 'Tea Poisoner,' was a British serial killer who even poisoned his own family until they dropped dead. A later found diary showed that he meticulously recorded who, where, when, and with what dosage he poisoned. His murder weapon: thallium.
The Brussels court ruled that Gauthier had been inspired as a 'copycat.' He was exposed and stopped before any actual deaths occurred.
After spending a year in prison, followed by nine months with an ankle monitor, Gauthier appeared in court on Wednesday as a free man due to a procedural error. Impeccably dressed, chest puffed out, casually tapping on his smartphone beforehand, as noted by Het Nieuwsblad. He was fully committed to acquittal.
Only his 'perspiring armpits' betrayed nerves. 'This is a case of all or nothing,' said his lawyer Carine Couquelet. At the previous session, she argued that Gaël B. had injured himself by applying day cream mixed with thallium under the pretext of suffering from depressive thoughts and self-injury.
That Gauthier had ordered half a kilogram of the poisonous substance, even setting up a company for it? That was just because of a rat infestation in the family's vacation home. Describing how such a half-kilogram could kill an astonishing 92,000 rats, the engineer called it a miscalculation during the session.
Although after thorough examination psychiatrists and psychologists did not necessarily label Gauthier as an extreme pervert or sadist, the evidence was overwhelming. He, and no one else, had attempted, inspired by Graham Young, to slowly torture his best friend by poisoning him multiple times with rat poison in cream, tiramisu, and grape juice. Gaël B. was to suffer a long and painful death as part of an experiment, according to the court.
The Brussels man in his thirties must now serve eighteen years. A final letter from his parents, describing a child who had never lied and was raised with the necessary norms and values, did not help in mitigating the sentence.
Officers led him away in handcuffs. 'Stay strong,' shouted his advocates. His mother and girlfriend were swiftly blown a kiss. Although the judge dismissed nearly all arguments and portrayed Gauthier as a ruthless (almost) poison murderer, even in his support circle, the sense of guilt had not sunk in.
In addition to a lengthy prison sentence, he was also hit with a massive fine. He must pay a whopping 450,000 euros in medical expenses and damages to the victim's family. Gaël was too frail to attend such a taxing trial.
Gaël B.'s life is shattered, says lawyer Catherine Toussaint. He is stuck in a wheelchair forever, incapable of self-care, living like a vegetable with no hope of improvement. He is more dead than alive, with only his brain still somewhat functioning. 'I refuse to spend one more second of my life on that bastard,' he said before the trial against his family.