A British court sentenced a 49-year-old woman to life imprisonment on Wednesday for an acid attack that a judge said was โan act of pure evilโโ resulting in her ex-boyfriend carrying out an assisted suicide.
Judge Nicola Davies handed South African fashion student Berlinah Wallace a life sentence with a minimum term of 12 years at Bristol Crown Court, in what is believed to be Britainโs most severe sentence for an acid attack.
Wallace threw 98 per-cent sulphuric acid over Dutch engineer Mark Van-Dongen as he lay on a bed in Bristol in September 2015, dressed only in boxer shorts.
Wallaceย threw sulphuric acid over Mark van Dongen, 29, after he began a relationship with another woman.
She was earlier cleared of murder and manslaughter, but she was convicted of โthrowing a corrosive substance with intentโโ at Van-Dongen, 29, who ended his life at a clinic in Belgium in January 2017 after suffering catastrophic injuries.
โYour intention was to burn, disfigure and disable Van-Dongen so that he would not be attractive to any other woman,โ Davies told Wallace.
โIt was an act of pure evil.โ
โNothing better demonstrates your malicious and callous intention than your refusal to provide any help even when Van-Dongen was screaming in pain,โ Davies said.
Detective Insp. Paul Catton of Avon and Somerset Police said the case had been โextremely unusual and challenging.โโ
โTodayโs sentence, which I believe is the first life sentence handed to someone involved in an acid attack, reflects the gravity of the crime Wallace committed, her refusal to accept responsibility and the horrendous consequences her actions had,โโ Catton said.ย
(dpa/NAN)
