In the ongoing trial for the attempted murder of her mother, the accused Kuntal Patel said TV drama 'Breaking Bad' helped her carry out the poisoning.
The 37-year old graphic designer purchased Abrin, a chemical similar to ricin which was featured on the tv's shows final episode as promising a 'horrible death', to spike her mother's diet coke. Patel planned to lace the drink after watching successive episodes and then searching for the product for hours online. She said she did not pursue the show until she had heard about the drug: 'I was 'watching Breaking Bad, going back and researching stuff, and then watching more Breaking Bad (…) I started from the beginning and I was watching one a day. I became addicted to it.'
This was in response to an emotionally and sometimes physically abusive mother, the court heard from Kuntal. Meena Patel, 60, demanded to know her daughter's whereabouts at every hour of the day and would beat her. When she broke up Kuntal's budding romance with American national Niraj Kakad, it was the final straw: ' I was very low and depressed, and never imagined I could feel so low'.
The phials of poison, which Kuntal obtained through an illicit website, were tracked down by the FBI and counter-terrorist officers were swiftly deployed to her home in East London.
Though Patel denies trying to murder her mother, she he has pleaded guilty to acquiring biological agents or toxins.
