Michele Angiuli: Miky’s owner blames employee after suspected poisoningHarriet FlinnThe West AustralianWed, 8 October 2025 2:59PMEmail Harriet Flinn
The owner of a Crawley restaurant accused of serving mosquito repellent instead of cranberry juice to diners has blamed an employee, calling his mistake a “catastrophic brain failure”.
Michele Angiuli faced court on Wednesday to fight five charges handed down after an investigation into a suspected poisoning incident at his Italian restaurant Miky’s on June 28 last year.
Prosecutors from the City of Perth allege Olivia Lemin, 12, and her sister Hannah, 11, were served citronella oil — a form of mosquito repellent — while dining at the restaurant with their parents Marcus and Michelle.
Both parents testified as witnesses on Wednesday. Mr Lemin said when the family arrived at the restaurant, the two children ordered two cranberry juices each, which they drank without any issue.
After finishing their drinks, the two girls ordered another glass of cranberry juice, which came out shortly after. It’s alleged these two glasses were filled with citronella oil.
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“The girls took a sip as soon as it came out, and almost immediately spat it out onto the table,” Ms Lemin said.
“My eldest said something along the lines of ‘this is poison’, and I replied like ‘don’t be silly’ and then took a sip to prove it wasn’t.
“But as soon as I did, I knew it wasn’t cranberry juice, and spat it out into a tissue.”
Mr Lemin also took the glass to smell it and said he could “immediately tell” it wasn’t cranberry juice either.
CCTV footage played to the court shows Mr Lemin then approached Alessio Celoria, who was the bartender on shift at the time.
“I was pretty upfront and direct, I said ‘I need to know what you served to my children’,” Mr Lemin said.
Mr Lemin says Mr Celoria reached into the drink fridge, put the (citronella) under the counter and went back and picked up a new bottle of cranberry juice.
“He said something like ‘it’s just old cranberry juice, I’ll get them a new one’, but I said ‘No, I need to see that one’, pointing to the (citronella bottle).”
Footage shows the exchange between the two men, where Mr Lemin can be seen taking the bottle of citronella from Mr Celoria and taking a photo of it.
“I said some choice language like ‘you f…ing poisoned my children’ and that we were going to hospital and will be reporting you to the health authorities,” Mr Lemin said.
Ms Lemin said the girls were visibly upset, and said their mouth and stomach was burning.
“I had similar symptoms and a headache, but I was just trying to console them and tell them everything was fine,” she said.
The family left the restaurant and went to Perth Children’s Hospital, where the two daughters were admitted.
Ms Lemin said her symptoms then worsened and was told by a nurse to admit herself into a hospital. Ms Lemin said she then walked over to Sir Charles Gairdner to check herself in.
The family left the hospital later that evening.
Little is in dispute; my client accepts it’s horrible that there were two children that had to be hospitalised after this incident.
Mr Angiuli’s defence lawyer agreed with the facts, claiming there was “very little in dispute”, but claimed the blame should be put on Mr Celoria instead.
“The main issue is due diligence … Mr Angiuli had reasonable cautions and exercised all due diligence,” defence lawyer Dan Johnston said.
Explaining how the citronella ended up on the bar counter and not where the restaurant’s other chemicals were kept, Mr Johnston said a friend of Mr Angiuli had moved the bottle inside after it was left outside by Mr Angiuli, who was using it to fill up candles for the outside seating.
“At around 4.30pm, (the friend) went to leave the resturant and took the bottle of citronella oil, which was left outside next to him, and put it in the bar enclave with his glasses,” Mr Johnston said.
“He leaves without telling Michele he had done that.”
However, this was disputed by environmental health officer Leah Farrell, who was called to testify on Wednesday.
Ms Farrell, who was contracted by the City of Perth to carry out the investigation, said during the investigation Mr Angiuli said he had stopped using citronella to fill up candles abut three years ago over safety concerns.
“On this occasion, the correct process was not followed; the front of bar staff processes was not followed otherwise the citronella would’ve been identified,” Ms Farrell said.
“The (bartender) who undertook safety supervisor training, would’ve been able to identity that was a hazardous substance.”
Mr Johnston says it was a “catastrophic failure” by Mr Celoria, who had been working at the restaurant for only two weeks, that led to the mix-up.
“Mr Celoria is an experienced bartender and restaurant manager,” he said,
“In the footage, you can see him take the docket for the first two cranberry juices. He takes the juice from the fridge …. this was a much smaller bottle than the citronella and was cold to touch.
“He then threw out the empty bottle of cranberry juice.”
When the second order of the cranberry juices was sent through, Mr Johnston said Mr Celoria did not check the bar fridge where more cranberry juice was stored, but instead picked up the citronella bottle that was sitting in the bar enclave, poured the oil into two glasses and delivered it.
“Little is in dispute; my client accepts it’s horrible that there were two children that had to be hospitalised after this incident,” Mr Johnston said.
“A trained bartender doesn’t reach blindly; (it is a) complete failure for someone to not check the label.
“It doesn’t explain how Mr Celoria mistakes a warm bottle of oil for cranberry juice. It is a very different bottle and has a child safety opening lid on it.
“My client is incredibly remorseful, and feels horrible what happened to the two customers.”
The trial continues.
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