Source : the age
A man who swallowed cyanide as he was being arrested for domestic violence had bought the poison online after a chemical supplier failed to check his background properly.
It took Phillip Reidy, 27, just nine seconds to covertly consume one of the deadliest poisons in the world, collapsing to his knees and asking police to tell his mother he loved her.
Phillip Reidy.
Until then, officers sent to arrest Reidy at his home in Kyneton in July 2024 were unaware he’d managed to obtain sodium cyanide and had previously threatened to use it, the Coroners Court of Victoria heard in a summary inquest on Wednesday.
Coroner Paul Lawrie said the officers’ body-worn camera footage showed Reidy was co-operative as police started to handcuff him. However, he asked to go to the toilet and get a shirt, which police allowed.
As he walked through his home, with two officers in tow, Reidy discreetly picked up a bottle of the cyanide from a desk and washed the contents down with a soft drink. Seconds later, he began coughing and collapsed to his knees, saying: “Tell my mum I love her.”
When police asked what was happening, Reidy responded: “I’m dying.”
He began coughing up blood before losing consciousness.
Police and paramedics tried to revive him, but the 27-year-old was soon pronounced dead.
His mother, Sandra Reidy, said her son was diagnosed with ADHD aged seven and undergone mental health treatment for years, but didn’t attend school much after year 8 because teachers couldn’t manage him.
“Phillip was a caring person who found it difficult to express himself,” she said. “I feel these missed opportunities in his education meant he did not become the man he could have been.”
Reidy used fraudulent details to buy 250 grams of sodium cyanide online from an interstate supplier in July 2023 for $153. The supplier asked him to fill out and sign a form to prove his credentials for an exemption to buy the chemical. That exemption does not exist in Victorian law.
The crime scene in Kyneton.Credit: Nine News
Lawrie said Reidy’s form should have raised serious concerns as a “quick internet search” showed the scientific organisation that Reidy claimed to be buying for was actually a blockchain company. The qualification section was also left incomplete.
The coroner rejected the supplier’s submission that it could only take the form on face value.
“The falsity of the document should have been immediately suspected, and even basic enquiries would have shown the document for what it was,” he said.
Lawrie also said it was “confounding” that Australia did not have consistent national regulations for poisons, despite having a federal poison classification scheme.
After ordering the cyanide – infamously used in the Jonestown Massacre and by several prominent Nazis – Reidy told his mother about the purchase, but she did not believe him.
Reidy’s mental health had deteriorated when he lost money in cryptocurrency and another scam in 2021. He had also been previously arrested for domestic violence, leading him to tell him mum that he’d take his own life if she died, or if he was arrested again.
The month before his death, Reidy got into another argument with his partner and slapped her in the face. He later put some cyanide into a drink and threatened to consume it before his partner calmed him.
On the day of his death, Reidy cut his finger as he took out the rubbish. He blamed his partner and was captured on CCTV grabbing her throat and throwing her to the floor.
His partner then went to Kyneton police station to report the incident, and warned the officer taking her statement that Reidy had cyanide and had almost used it before.
But the officer failed to mention this when she briefed her colleague, telling the court in a statement that she was focused on the family violence instead.
When other officers went to Reidy’s home later that day, they did not know about the cyanide threat.
“I conclude that this is an instance of human fallibility,” the coroner said.
However, he said it was not possible to determine whether this would have caused officers to treat Reidy differently when they arrested him.
Reidy’s mother said her son’s life was cut too short.
“I wish that his actions could have been prevented with better communication prior to his death,” Reidy’s mother said. “A child shouldn’t die before his parents.”
