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 court heard Wallace had bought the acid to attack her former partner, a Dutch engineer, because he had left her for another woman.
Wallace threw a glass of the substance over Mr van Dongen on the night of 22 September 2015 after he had returned to her flat in Ladysmith Road to reiterate that their turbulent relationship was over, but decided to stay the night.
Wallace threw a glass of the substance over Mr van Dongen on the night of 22 September 2015 after he had returned to her flat in Ladysmith Road to reiterate that their turbulent relationship was over, but decided to stay the night.
Screaming in agony, he staggered out on to the street where he was found by alarmed neighbours who dialled 999.
The judge said Wallace “told lie after lie” after the “horrific attack”.
“When interviewed by the police you sought to place the blame upon Mark van Dongen, falsely alleging that he had poured the acid into the glass on your bedside table intending that you should drink it.
“It was an account which you gave in September 2015 and maintained throughout this trial.”
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