'I hope we will see more convictions' says mother of DNP death student Eloise Parry after Bernard Rebelo is jailed

A mother whose bulimic daughter suffered a "horrific" death after taking toxic slimming pills has said she hopes the "unprecedented" sentencing of the man responsible will lead to more convictions.

Online steroid dealer Bernard Rebelo, 31, from Gosport in Hampshire, was jailed for seven years on Friday for the manslaughter of Eloise Parry in April 2015.

The 21-year-old, from Shrewsbury, died in hospital after taking eight tablets containing the poisonous Dinitrophenol (DNP).

Speaking to ITV News, her mother, Fiona Parry, said: "It's unprecedented, it's a first, so hopefully this will make it easier in future for other sellers of DNP to be brought to justice to face a manslaughter charge for doing the same thing, for selling DNP to vulnerable youngsters, people who are so desperate to change their appearance they are open to this kind of persuasion, to the idea that 'yeah this is a good idea' when it's not at all.

"So I would hope we will see more convictions as and when we can catch these people. I think that can only be a step in the right direction."

Jurors were told that Miss Parry started taking the chemical in pill form in February 2015, and soon became addicted and dependent on the yellow powder in the capsules.

The trial heard that among other things, DNP could cause multiple organ failure, hypothermia, nausea, coma, muscle rigidity, cardiac arrest and death.

The court heard that depending on body weight, just 200mg of DNP can be lethal.

"What DNP does to your body is horrific," said Ms Parry. "We've all been through this recent heatwave, we know how unpleasant it is when you're too hot. That's what DNP does to you only on a much more, much greater scale."

"You are overheating internally. It's like somebody's put you on a treadmill and you can't stop, your muscles have got to be hurting so much from the way they're being forced to burn off energy and create heat. You're going to be so hot you can't cool down and that's what causes the organ failure. It's a really, really nasty way to die."

• 'We didn't get a chance to say goodbye'

Ms Parry said her daughter "knew she was in trouble" and "went straight to hospital" but didn't call her family before it was too late.

"This was something that like many people who take DNP, she kept secret, she hid and even at that point where she'd taken herself to hospital and knew she was in trouble she didn't feel able to make that phone call and tell us what she'd done.

"She was really hoping that we wouldn't find out still which means that, yeah, we didn't get a chance to say goodbye."

Rebelo admitted while giving evidence during the trial that he sold DNP to Miss Parry.

He told the jury that he included a warning on his website that the substance was not for human consumption.

Ms Parry said: "Making money was the whole thing behind it, he really didn't care about the fact that it wasn't legal, about the fact he was putting other people in danger as long as he was making the money and it was a lot of money by the looks of things.

"I'd be very curious to know what's become of that money, where's it gone?"

Ms Parry said Eloise "wasn't the first person to die as a result of DNP" and she is "sure there'll be more in the future".

"All I can hope that is by allowing people to hear about it, to hear what happened there will be fewer deaths than there might otherwise have been."

She added: "I wouldn't want anybody else to die like she did, I know I can't stop it completely but if I can reduce the numbers that's a step in the right direction.

"I wouldn't want any other family to go through what we have been through so if it's fewer families, that's good."