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Two hotel guests noticed the manoeuvre. According to what they told the police, they women saw how a waitress approached the dessert cabinet and poured a yellowish liquid on the yoghurt and a tray of pineapple. It was bleach.
National Police managed to identify the employee who allegedly poured the liquid "with the intention of causing serious damage to the establishment through food poisoning", as it was her last day of work and she found out that her contract was not going to be renewed, according to the police investigation.
The woman, aged about 50 and with no previous criminal record, will soon sit in the dock to face a possible court sentence of three years in prison, which is the sentence requested for her actions by the Malaga Public Prosecutor's Office.
Specifically, she is charged with a crime against public health, under article 365 of Spain's penal code, for "poisoning or adulterating with infectious substances or others which may be seriously harmful" to health, food substances intended for "public use or consumption by a community of persons", according to the accusation.
The defendant, who is being represented by lawyer Luis Miguel Ruiz Braña, denies the facts. She has done so from the very first moment, when the two guests identified her and the hotel manager, accompanied by the head of security, asked her about what had happened. "What are you saying, that I'm crazy? How could I poison children," she replied.
The incident allegedly happened at 8.50pm on 31 May 2023, when the hotel's buffet service was in progress. The two guests saw that the worker, after pouring bleach on the desserts, quickly withdrew to the kitchen area while pushing the cleaning trolley used to take away the crockery.
The two guests, who were on holiday with their families, then reported the incident to the hotel maître d'hôtel and pointed out the employee they had seen pouring the bleach. The hotel's head waitress in turn alerted the manager and the head of security, who notified the police.
When officers arrived, the hotel's management handed over some containers with the contaminated food as well as two bottles of lemon and yellow bleach used at that time in the establishment for cleaning, in order to verify if it was the one that had been used.
The hotel manager explained that the defendant's employment contract was due to expire on the same day, and that she had been informed "in due time and form" that she would not be reemployed which is why it is presumed to have been done in retaliation.
The prosecution's case also includes another incident that happened five days earlier, specifically on 26 May. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the defendant handled a bottle of milk from the hotel bar and poured bleach into it, although in this case it was intended for the consumption of workers at the hotel.
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