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A student at Trinity is at the centre of an alleged poisoning plot of his housemates.

Dublin Live has learned that university bosses were alerted to a claim that bleach had been placed in a coffee machine.

It’s understood a substance was allegedly found by a female student who shares a house with the male suspect.

The property is not believed to be on the campus.

A source said: “Trinity College authorities have been informed of the matter.

“Gardai are not investigating at this time, they have not been called in by the college as yet.

“This is a frightening incident and it is believed the alleged victims are trying to decide whether they want to make a statement or not.”

Trinity College authorities are understood to be carrying out an investigation as the case involves the safety of students.

The student is thought to be in the second year of a course in the college.

A source said: “The suspect is alleged to have attempted to poison his housemates using bleach in a coffee machine.

“His ‘plot’ was uncovered and he was confronted by the female student.

“It is claimed he has admitted what he did to the housemates - and allegedly claimed that he had done something similar in the past.”

The source added that the girl who found the bleach is now ‘too scared to return to college’ as the suspect has not yet been expelled.

A source said the suspect even admitted he had researched using bleach as a poison and knew the exact amounts to put in the espresso machine to damage his house mates.

When contacted, a spokeswoman for TCD refused to comment on the incident.

She said: “In the interest of student confidentiality, it is our policy not to comment on individual student cases.

“In the event of any incident that may affect our students’ safety occurring on campus all appropriate actions are taken by the university in order to manage the situation safely, lawfully and as set down by our student discipline policy.

"We also provide all appropriate supports in terms of counselling and pastoral care for any students affected."

The alleged poisoning scheme bears striking similarities to a similar incident in the US.

In December, 2018 a student in a university in Pennsylvania was charged with trying to poison his former roommate.

Yukai Yang, a 22-year-old international student from China, was accused of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, simple assault and reckless endangerment in connection with the alleged plot to kill fellow student, Juwan Royal.

Authorities claimed that the poisoning in that incident allegedly occurred over a 10 month period.