Guilty of attempted murder
Yan Chin-ping, a woman in her 40s, was found guilty last week by the Taipei District Court of attempting to murder her ex-boyfriend, Australian student Alex Shorey. She was sentenced to 11 years and two months in prison and can appeal. She had been charged with attempted murder in December 2024.
Shorey, then 23 and from Toowoomba, Queensland, was studying a one-year Chinese language exchange programme at Tamkang University in Taipei when he met Chin-ping. In 2023, he was rushed to hospital with severe stomach pain, blood in his urine, diarrhoea and nosebleeds. Doctors discovered he had been poisoned with superwarfarin, a highly toxic rodenticide, on at least three occasions over several months.
Three poisonings
Prosecutors said Chin-ping first added the poison to Shorey's grape juice in an attempt to stop him returning to Australia and ending their romance. She poisoned him again after he was admitted to hospital, and a third time while he was in critical care, by mixing rat poison into his blood medication.
Shorey's father, Stephen, had travelled to Taiwan to bring his son home for treatment. Chin-ping manipulated him into signing a form declining admission to intensive care and insisted on acting as the family's translator, preventing hospital staff from speaking to them in English. Despite this, Stephen successfully pushed for his son to remain in intensive care until a medical evacuation could be arranged.
Suspicion was raised when Shorey's mother discovered an empty bottle of rat poison among his belongings.
Prosecutors' statement
The Taipei District Prosecutors Office said: "Although Alex fortunately did not die, the suffering he endured in Taiwan was immense. He was at constant risk of massive bleeding from various parts of his body and could have died at any moment. The defendant's actions, methods and post-crime attitude were extremely malicious and there were no mitigating factors to show compassion."
At trial, Shorey and his parents testified, while Chin-ping denied the charges. She claimed the rat poison was for herself, saying she had been struggling after the death of her late husband.
Court ruling and aftermath
The court ruled that Chin-ping was fixated on keeping Shorey in Taiwan and continued poisoning him despite his declining health. It described the crime as carefully planned and executed, and found she showed no remorse.
In 2023, Shorey's parents thanked supporters after a GoFundMe campaign raised more than £150,500 ($200,000) to fund his medical evacuation back to Australia.
"It's been just under three months since Alex arrived back in Australia, and since that time our focus has been on his health and recovery from the traumatic situation that unfolded in Taiwan," they wrote in July 2023. "We'd like to express our immense gratitude again to all those who shared Alex's story, to those who generously donated to get him home, and to all those who sent good wishes, love and support to our family. It is thanks to you that we were able to get Alex home safely. The kindness shown to us, and all the messages left on this page for Alex, helped more than you can imagine. We feel so blessed to have Alex home."
