Liquid spraying ‘acid’ attacker sent to prison

A LABOURER has been jailed for a roadside “acid” attack after squirting a bottle of cleaning solution at two men.

Max Kelly was a passenger in a BMW being driven by his friend when a confrontation took place with drinkers sitting outside a pub.

Kelly shouted “I’ve got acid” at the men, before spraying the liquid.

Jailing him for the “very serious crimes”, chairman of magistrates Ann Brown told him his actions could not “be taken for granted”.

One victim, David Hobson, an offduty firefighter, described it smelling like “ammonia” and desperately tried to clean the liquid off during the incident on July 18.

The other man, Robert Robinson, stripped off in the street after being hit, such was his fear of injury after a spate of well-publicised attacks across the UK.

The confrontation was sparked after Robert watched the BMW being driven erratically around the narrow streets of a residential area in Dickens Heath, Solihull.

When he told the driver to slow down, the car stopped and Kelly got out asking him: “What did you say?”

The 23-year-old, formerly of Smiths Wood, but now of Evesham, got out of the car. “I’ve got acid,” he said – and sprayed it on the two men.

Kelly, a father-of-one expecting his second child, claimed he never used those words but had been found guilty of two counts of common assault at an earlier trial.

Jailing Kelly at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court, Mrs Brown told him he had shown little remorse, adding: “You don’t appear to have taken responsibility.”

Kelly, who had previous convictions for criminal damage and had just served a suspended sentence at the time of the attack for having a weapon on another occasion, replied: “I understand.”

Mrs Brown told him: “The fear and distress you put your victims to cannot be taken for granted. They believed they’d been sprayed with acid.”

He was sentenced to six months in jail for each attack, to run concurrently, and ordered to pay both men £500 compensation. The car’s driver, Benjamin Prentice, of Hexton Close, Solihull, was fined £140 at an earlier hearing after admitting a public order offence in connection with the incident.