12 years jail for woman whose acid attack on ex-love led him to euthanasia

A SPURNED woman who maimed her former love with super-strength acid to destroy his looks was jailed for at least 12 years yesterday after a judge branded her attack “an act of pure evil”.

Berlinah Wallace’s attack on Mark van Dongen, 29 – after he had left her for a younger woman – ultimately led to his suicide more than a year later.

As Mr van Dongen slept at her Bristol flat in 2015, fashion student Wallace doused him with 98 per cent concentrated sulphuric acid, yelling: “If I can’t have you, no one can.”

The Dutch engineer suffered devastating burns to a quarter of his body, was virtually blinded and had to have his left leg amputated.

Tortured by excruciating pain and eventually paralysed from the neck down, he decided to kill himself at a euthanasia clinic in Belgium last year.

In a landmark decision, prosecutors charged Wallace, 48, with murder, of which she was cleared at Bristol Crown Court last week.

Tortured

But she was found guilty of throwing a corrosive substance with intent.

Mrs Justice Nicola Davies jailed her for life, with a minimum of 12 years, and said: “Your intention was to burn, disfigure and disable Mark van Dongen so that he would not be attractive to any other woman.

“It was an act of pure evil. You did nothing to help him. You chose not to call an ambulance. Instead you sat on the sofa of your living room and telephoned a friend.”

In agony, Mr van Dongen ran into the street, begging neighbours for help. The judge told Wallace: “Nothing demonstrates your malicious and callous intention than your refusal to provide any help even when Mark was screaming in pain.”

Wallace’s trial heard she had carried out extensive research, visiting 82 websites before buying the acid online. She told the jury she was convinced the liquid she threw was only water.

She said Mr van Dongen must have put acid in a glass so she would drink it, and accused him of being abusive.

Outside court, Mr van Dongen’s father Kees said Wallace’s actions had “completely ruined” the lives of his family.

After the hearing, some lawyers questioned the decision to charge Wallace with murder.

David Corker, of leading criminal law firm Corker Binning, said: “The proper charge was either attempted murder or GBH with intent.

“Juries should not be used by a prosecutor and judges should not permit them to be asked to consider whether the legal definition of a crime ought to be changed or extended, no matter what the circumstances or the public outrage.”