Pound worker claims set-up as milk poisoning case unfolds in Whangārei District Court

The Kioreora Rd, Whangārei Armourguard animal control centre where the laced milk was found in the fridge. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A man accused of putting poison in the milk at his workplace claimed in a police interview he drank directly out of the communal milk bottle.

Clinton Sullivan pleaded not guilty to one charge of poisons with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and one charge of poisoning with the intention to cause inconvenience. His case was heard this week at the Whangārei District Court before Judge Philip Rzepecky.

The Crown alleged Sullivan turned up to his workplace on a scheduled day off on the evening of August 1, 2021, and laced the workplace milk with anti-freeze used for motor vehicles.

After he left, his colleague Rangihau Kahukiwa returned to the Whangārei pound and Armourguard site on Kioreora Rd and made himself a coffee.

In Kahukiwa’s evidence earlier this week, he told the court he noticed the milk was green and thought someone had played a prank and put food colouring in it.

Unaware of any potential danger, he tasted the milk and experienced an instant dryness and a chemical taste, prompting him to spit it out and rinse his mouth out with several cups of water.

CCTV evidence showed Sullivan arrived at the site around 10.23pm - about four hours before Kahukiwa allegedly drank the milk - and accessed several areas including reception, the vet’s room and the tearoom.

One camera angle captured Sullivan with the milk bottle at the sink.

Judge Philip Rzepecky has listened to three days of evidence at the Whangārei District Court in the case against Sullivan. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Sullivan’s interview with Constable Ryan Cooper in 2021 was played in court and he went into detail about why he was at the site that Sunday evening.

Sullivan disclosed he had strained workplace relationships, in particular with Kahukiwa, and that he had a disciplinary meeting scheduled for Monday, August 2, 2021.

In preparation for his meeting with management, Sullivan told Cooper, he had gone to the site to do some printing and fill out forms.

When pressed about how long he had stayed, Sullivan loosely estimated it had been about an hour. When shown the video of him with the milk bottle, he attempted to explain that he had taken a drink directly from it.

“It looks like I’m standing at the sink, having a drink of milk maybe, what do you think’s going on?” Sullivan asked the police officer.

“You told me you took the milk back to your desk and drank it there,” Cooper responded.

“Well, I’ve licked the bottle, my goobies are around the top of the bottle that needs to be washed off. That could be what I’m doing there,” Sullivan said in the evidential interview.

He challenged Cooper to provide video evidence of him pouring anti-freeze into the milk but the police officer said there was none.

“When we’ve reviewed footage, it’s clear Rangi is working and then you arrive and stay for about an hour and you’re the only other person that comes.

“When you’ve left and he’s come back, the milk has been contaminated with something. Can you explain that to me?” Cooper asked.

Sullivan said he’d been “set up” by his colleague Kahukiwa.

“Dust the bottle [anti-freeze] for proof, it will be his prints on there, not mine,” the defendant said.

“He did it to get me in trouble. It’s a set-up.”

In closing arguments, Sullivan’s lawyer, Aaron Dooney, said the Crown had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. He criticised the failure to do any fingerprint testing on the bottle of anti-freeze.

“The substance could have been introduced at any number of points because of the distinct lack of chain of events,” he submitted.

Dooney said Kahukiwa cast a shadow on the Crown case because there were discrepancies in the type of milk bottle he claimed to have seen.

Kahukiwa gave evidence that he saw the milk was green through the milk bottle, which was then a clear milk bottle.

But Dooney said the bottle later produced was a non-see-through white bottle.

“The fundamental point is, he sees the milk in the fridge and that there is something wrong with the milk.

“It’s a discrepancy and it’s a major discrepancy,” Dooney said.

Judge Rzepecky asked the lawyer: “What’s the point you make? That he switched the bottles?”

The judge has reserved his decision until late January.

Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.