High School Lab Technician Poisoned British Girl With Chloroform

A laboratory technician who doused a 17-year-old student's dust mask in chloroform, knocking her unconscious, was found guilty in a U.K. court Friday.

Jared Shreeve, 41, from the London neighborhood of Romford, was convicted of administering a poison with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy.

Shreeve, who worked as a lab technician at an east London high school, was helping a female student gain experience working with chemicals on July 2, 2008.

At lunchtime that day, Shreeve took the 17-year-old to the chemical store where he gave the girl a dust mask, instructing her to put it over her nose and mouth.

Prior to handing over the mask, Shreeve had doused it with chloroform from a brown bottle which he had marked "Chemical Odour Neutraliser."

The girl removed the mask when she began to feel unwell, but Shreeve insisted she wear it. The girl was later overcome by fumes and passed out.

She suffered a chemical burn to her face and was treated at London's King Georges Hospital.
Officers from London's Metropolitan Police arrested Shreeve at his home in August after an investigation.

He was taken into custody where he denied any knowledge of the harmful effects of chloroform.

This claim was contradicted when it was established Shreeve had a sound understanding of chemicals, and could distinguish unidentified substances by their odor alone.

Shreeve is due to be sentenced on August 20.