Infamous 2018 "Strawberry Needle Saga" Starts Trial Monday

Over four weeks, the Brisbane District Court will decide whether My Ut Trinh, a 53-year-old farm supervisor, purposely inserted needles in strawberries back in 2018. 

It halted the strawberry industry and caused some serious bewilderment across the nation. 

It’s alleged Trinh put needles in strawberries (but why?) at the Berrylicious farm in Caboolture sometime between September 3 and 12, 2018. 

On September 9, Joshua Gane posted on Facebook saying his friend swallowed “half a sewing needle” after biting a strawberry. 

“We then checked the other strawberries and found another sewing needle lodged inside one of them. We are now at the ER because he subsequently started experiencing severe abdominal pain," he said.

People got spooked by strawberries, prompting a major health warning and recall across every state except for Tasmania. 

The image posted to Facebook by Joshua Gane, above. 

From there, 1 Queenslander and 2 Victorians reported finding sewing needles inside their strawberries. 

In a bizarre turn-of-events, Queensland Police Detective Sergeant Gary Perrett said 240 reports of copycat incidents came through after the event. 

Prior to Trinh’s arrest, police were offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible. 

Get the latest breaking news from SCA newsrooms around Australia. Short, simple and everything you need to know.