Economy
1080 blackmailer Jeremy Kerr was in business with Government
The man unmasked as the 1080 baby formula blackmailer originally went into business with a Government-owned company and his possum control poison is widely used by the Department of Conservation. TONY WALL reports.
The person who sent threatening letters laced with 1080 to Fonterra and Federated Farmers would be an anti-1080 “nutter”, the theory went, a “bearded recluse” who was so against the poison he was prepared to kill babies.
Police zeroed in on known activists but in the end the culprit was someone who was at the very heart of the poisons industry itself, a man who had the ear of Government scientists in the fight to control possums.
Auckland businessman Jeremy Kerr, 60, has pleaded guilty to two charges of attempted blackmail after admitting he was the person who sent the letters last year. The Crown alleges he was financially motivated.