Sex-shop tycoon Jacqueline Gold brought pleasure to millions of Britons but not, it seems, to the nanny employed to look after her young daughter. The 33-year-old nanny appeared in court yesterday, charged with 3 counts of the unusual crime of administering poison with intent to annoy, AP reports. The nanny spiked her employer's soup with salt, sugar, and windshield-wiper fluid, according to prosecutors. No motive has been suggested.
Experts say Gold—who became one of Britain's wealthiest women after switching the focus of the Ann Summers chain she inherited from male to female customers—was not harmed by the fluid. Gold's chef had the food analyzed when she complained about an odd taste in her soup. "You can give a poisonous substance to someone just to annoy them," a forensic chemistry professor says. "The satisfaction the perpetrator gets is from knowing that you are humiliating the victim." (More Jacqueline Gold stories.)