Berlinah Wallace jailed for life for Mark van Dongen acid attack

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-44222057

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A woman who threw sulphuric acid at her former partner, which led to him ending his life, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 12 years.

Berlinah Wallace, 48, hurled the corrosive fluid at Dutch engineer Mark van Dongen in Bristol in 2015.

At Bristol Crown Court, Mrs Justice Nicola Davies told Wallace it was "an act of pure evil".

She was cleared of murdering her former partner but found guilty of throwing a corrosive substance with intent.

"Your intention was to burn, disfigure and disable Mark van Dongen so that he would not be attractive to any other woman," the judge said.

Mr van Dongen, 29, was left paralysed from the neck down and lost an ear, eye and his left leg following the attack, and ended his own life in a Belgian hospital in January 2017.

The judge told Wallace she had "chosen the moment" for the attack when Mr van Dongen was wearing only boxer shorts and was asleep in bed at her flat in Westbury Park.

"Vulnerable, almost naked, he awoke but had no real opportunity to avoid the focus of your acid attack, namely his face and then his body," she said.

"Immediately before you threw the acid you said to Mark, 'If I can't have you, no-one can'."

The judge said Wallace had bought the acid to attack her former partner, a Dutch engineer, because he had left her for another woman.