A heroin-using grandfather who stuffed a used syringe into a supermarket loaf of bread that was later bought by an unsuspecting mother has been jailed for a year.
The woman discovered the needle – which had been stuck through the middle of the loaf by 62-year-old David Rodgers – after she used the bread to make her 10-year-old son a chicken sandwich for his school lunchbox, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Rodgers, from Weaste, who was traced by a speck of his blood left inside the syringe, had contaminated the loaf in a branch of Tesco Extra in Salford last December.
He claimed to be ‘deeply remorseful’ when he appeared in the dock to answer charges of contaminating or interfering with goods with intent to cause public alarm or anxiety in a rare case.
The needle he concealed in the loaf was found to contain no infectious diseases.