Kitchen porter arrested at public school in poisoned soup mystery

The 58-year-old was arrested last Friday on suspicion of administering poison with intent to endanger life or inflict grievous bodily harm after the carrot and coriander soup was found to be tampered with at Stowe School, Buckingham.

Police said the man was not interviewed as he was unfit to be detained because of health reasons. He was bailed until March 29.

Police said the incident was not believed to be terrorist-related at the moment. Forensic investigations are continuing to establish what was put in the batch of soup.

Headteacher Anthony Wallersteiner said staff became suspicious during routine testing on Thursday.

He said: "This was a batch of soup that was being prepared for the evening meal and that was quite an ordinary batch of soup, there was nothing untoward about it.

"Before any meal is taken up from the kitchens to be served the food is tested, and it was during the routine sampling that one of the duty chefs discovered there was something acrid in the soup that was being prepared."

He said the soup was being prepared for an ordinary evening meal, not the annual Stowe International Dinner.

Dr Wallersteiner added that around 650 pupils have evening meals at the school, and as many who wanted the soup might have had it.

All staff at Stowe are Criminal Records Bureau-checked, the school confirmed.

A source said the product put in the soup was a kitchen cleaner, not bleach or diesel as previous reports have suggested.

Parents have been informed