Graham Young

Graham Frederick Young (7 September 1947 – 1 August 1990), also known as the Teacup Poisoner, was an English serial killer who killed his victims via poison.

Obsessed with poisons from an early age, Young started poisoning the food and drink of relatives and school friends.

He was caught when his teacher became suspicious and contacted the police.

Young pleaded guilty to three non-fatal poisonings and, at age 14, was detained at Broadmoor Hospital.

Young later took responsibility for the death of his stepmother, though this has not been proven.

Graham Young was born on Sunday, 7 September 1947 to Frederick and Bessie Young in Neasden, Middlesex; he had an older sister, Winifred.

Young's mother died of tuberculosis when he was fourteen weeks old and was subsequently sent to live with an uncle and aunt, while his sister went to live with their grandparents.

Several years later, Young's father remarried and the family were re-united.

Young was fascinated from an early age by poisons and their effects, and considered Victorian poisoner William Palmer to be a personal hero.

Young also read extensively about black magic, Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.

In 1959, as he passed his eleven-plus and went to grammar school, he started to read books on advanced toxicology.

In 1961, Young acquired antimony from a local chemist, signing the poisons register in the name "M.E. Evans"; his knowledge of poisons and chemistry convinced the chemist that he was older than he appeared.

Beginning in February he began poisoning members of his family.

First his stepmother Molly suffered vomiting, diarrhoea and excruciating stomach pain, which she initially dismissed as bilious attacks.

Before long his father suffered similar stomach cramps, debilitating him for days at a time.

Soon after, his sister became sick on a couple of occasions over the summer.

Shortly afterwards, Young himself fell violently ill.

It even seemed as if the mystery bug had spread beyond their household: a couple of Young's school friends had similarly been repeatedly absent from school, both suffering from similar symptoms.

In November 1961, Young's sister was served a cup of tea by her brother one morning but found its taste so sour she took only one mouthful before she threw it away.

While on the train to work an hour later, she began to hallucinate, had to be helped out of the station and was eventually taken to hospital, where doctors came to the conclusion that she had somehow been exposed to the poisonous Atropa Belladonna.

Young was confronted by his father, but he claimed that Winifred had been using the family's teacups to mix shampoo.

Unconvinced, Young's father searched his room but found nothing incriminating.

Nevertheless, he warned his son to be more careful in future when "messing about with those bloody chemicals".

On Easter Saturday, 21 April 1962, Young's stepmother died.

Her death was attributed to a prolapsed cervical disc, which was believed to have resulted from a road accident.

Much later, Young told police that he poisoned her with a lethal dose of thallium.

At her wake, Young poisoned a male relative after lacing a jar of mustard pickle with antimony.

Shortly afterwards his father became seriously ill and was taken to hospital, where he was told that he was suffering from antimony poisoning and one more dose would have killed him.

Young's aunt, who knew of his fascination with poisons, became suspicious, as did a science teacher who discovered several bottles of poison in his school desk.

The teacher and the headmaster arranged for Young to be interviewed by a psychiatrist posing as a careers advisor, who contacted police after Young revealed his extensive knowledge of poisons and toxicology.

Young was arrested on 23 May 1962 after returning home from school.

Vials of thallium and antimony were found in his possession.

When questioned by police, he confessed to poisoning his father, stepmother, sister and a school friend.

After being released in 1971, Young got a job in a factory in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, where he began poisoning his colleagues, resulting in two fatalities and several critical illnesses.

Young was convicted on two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder in 1972.

The Butler Committee led to widespread reforms in mental health services, while the passage of the 1972 Poisons Act put severe restrictions on the purchase of deadly poisons.

He served most of his life sentence at HM Prison Parkhurst, where he died of a heart attack in 1990.

The Young case made headlines in the United Kingdom and led to a public debate over the release of mentally ill offenders.

Within hours of his conviction, the British government announced two inquiries into the issues it raised.

Young's life story inspired the 1995 film The Young Poisoner's Handbook.