New podcast investigates Rebelo case and deaths linked with the slimming drug DNP
August 10, 2021
Science journalist Jessica Wapner discusses the Rebelo case prosecuted by Richard Barraclough QC and Gordon Menzies and deaths linked with DNP.
American science journalist Jessica Wapner has been investigating the link between DNP and the death of a number of vulnerable individuals and in particular those who suffer eating disorders. The Podcast “Warrant for his Arrest” considers the attempts by FDA agents to prosecute the distributors of DNP in the United States. The FDA investigations have focused on mail fraud and the misbranding of drugs.
In the same Podcast she interviews Richard Barraclough QC and Gordon Menzies who have a special knowledge of food law and homicide in the United Kingdom. They were instructed by Sarah Wilson of Harrow Council as food safety and standards enforcing authority, to prosecute Bernard Rebelo for manslaughter. He had supplied DNP to Eloise Parry who died, having consumed the chemical for weight loss. He was convicted and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment. As Wapner says, this prosecution changed the cases in the United States “entirely” and “for the first time in history someone selling DNP had been found guilty of manslaughter”. Richard Barraclough QC has advised the Crown Prosecution Service on a similar case involving the supply of DNP by a supplier based in the United States.
A link to the podcast can be found here
