Mother Of Late Student Eloise Parry Tackles Firm Over Distribution Of DNP Pills

Mother Of Late Student Eloise Parry Tackles Firm Over Distribution Of DNP Pills

The mother of a student who died after taking toxic "fat-burning" pills has confronted a global distributor which was selling the substance on-line.

Fiona Parry, whose 21-year-old daughter Eloise died within hours of taking eight dinitrophenol (DNP) tablets in April, worked with the BBC to contact a supplier based in Turkey.

The firm, which did not supply DNP to Eloise, agreed to remove it from sale after being challenged during an investigation by the BBC's Inside Out West Midlands programme.

As part of the inquiry, Ms Parry made a video call to the company’s owner, posing as a bulk buyer for a chain of gyms.

During the call, Ms Parry asked the supplier, named as Orhan Topcuer, whether he was worried at deaths linked to the industrial chemical.

The chemistry teacher told the company owner: "It bothers me that there are people like you out there who are quite happy to sell this stuff."

Working with BBC reporter Jonathan Gibson, Ms Parry received an apology from the firm, which pledged to remove the product from sale immediately.

Several websites selling DNP were closed down by Interpol in the wake of Eloise's death.

An inquest in July was told that Eloise sent a text message apologising for "being so stupid" and saying she feared she would die after driving herself to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on April 12.

The student at Glyndwr University in Wrexham, who had a history of bulimia, used PayPal to buy a quantity of DNP on April 4 and ordered a second batch on the day of her death.

The victim's mother has previously called for a clamp-down on websites selling DNP.

The chemical, historically used in explosives, dyes and fungicides, was the subject of an Interpol warning notice issued to 190 countries in May.

:: The Inside Out West Midlands investigation is being screened on BBC One at 7.30pm tonight.

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