A Perth woman has described the “terror” she felt when she thought she was “going mad” and was “never going to see her children again” after eating brownies from a suburban cafe that were allegedly laced with cannabis.
Key points:
- Sharon Hoysted and her children ate brownies from Bada Bing cafe
- They all became unwell and tested positive to tetrahydrocannabinol
- The cafe owner denies selling contaminated food to the family
Sharon Hoysted was giving evidence at the trial of cafe owner, Nathan Sharp, who is accused of selling the contaminated brownies to her family at his Woodlands business in March 2017.
The Perth Magistrates Court has been told Ms Hoysted, her daughter Emily, 5, and son Tom, 3, all ate the brownies, and tests done after they were taken to hospital were positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), or cannabis.
Ms Hoysted testified her daughter started becoming unwell not long after the family arrived home from the cafe.
She said while her son Tom went to sleep, Emily let out what she described as “the most bloodcurdling scream she had ever heard” before “crying and sobbing intensely”.
She said her husband, Michael Maxwell, decided they needed to take Emily to hospital and while the child was initially calm in the car, she then once again “let out the most terrible frightening scream”.
Mother says she started seeing things
Ms Hoysted told the court she started to feel unwell after they arrived at the Perth Children’s Hospital, and things “started jumping from one point to another”.
She said she remembered lying on a bed and feeling scared.
“I thought they were going to take me away and I was never going to see my kids again because I knew what was happening to me, and I wasn’t able to control it, and I knew I couldn’t stop it from happening again.”
Ms Hoysted recounted “freaking out” after seeing a white hospital blanket on a bed that had holes in it.
“Sticking out of the blanket were two hands and two feet, and when I saw that I felt sheer terror. I didn’t think anything, I just felt sheer terror,” she said.
She said she then burst into tears when she looked up and saw four security guards.
“I thought I had failed the test and they were taking me away to Graylands [mental hospital] … I was devastated and I put my head in my hands and cried and cried and cried,” she told the court.
She testified she then fell asleep and when she woke up a couple of hours later she felt calmer.
Bada Bing owner denies charges
Mr Sharp denies selling contaminated food to the family.
Under cross examination from his lawyer, Tom Percy QC, Ms Hoysted was asked if she had any cannabis at home, to which she replied: “God no, no.”
She said she had used cannabis only once in her life, when she was in her 20s, when a flatmate made a chocolate cake, but after that she had “sworn” she never would have it again.
Mr Percy has suggested that his client did not actually “sell” the brownies to the family because they left the cafe without paying, and in her evidence, Ms Hoysted accepted that might have happened inadvertently.
The court has heard the defence is also arguing that there are “problems” with much of the evidence in the case, with claims it is inadmissible.
