LIFE JAIL FOR ACID ATTACKS
Clampdown to curb new horror sweeping Britain
CRIMINALS who use acid as a weapon could face life in prison.
The Crown Prosecution Service is issuing new guidance following a worrying rise in attacks.
Alison Saunders, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said: “The guidance is to make clear it’s serious stuff. We are giving the courts the widest possible sentencing power.”
Yesterday’s announcement does not mean a change of the law.
But prosecutors will now be aware of the most serious charges available for acid-related attacks.
Grievous bodily harm with intent will apply when serious injury is caused. This carries a possible life term. Offenders who miss their target could also be jailed for life.
Anyone who carries acid on the street without a proper reason could get up to four years.
Other offences the guidance deals with are possession of an offensive weapon on school premises and threatening with an offensive weapon in a school or public place, both punishable by up to four years.
The CPS said: “Acid and corrosive substance attacks have a devastating effect, sometimes exposing and dissolving bones.”
It warned the “cheap and easy to obtain” substances are becoming a preferred weapon.
There are 14 prosecutions under way in the London area alone, following a spate of muggings, revenge and hate attacks. There were more than 400 acid attacks in the six months to April 2017.
TRAUMATISED acid attack victims face a lifetime living with their scars.
So it is only right that the shameful perpetrators should face life in prison for this most cowardly of crimes.
Mirror readers will welcome the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to clamp down on this sick and terrifying phenomenon which has spread with alarming speed.
Since the start of 2015 there have been almost 1,400 attacks and experts say there’s no sign of a slow-down.
So there is logic for such tough sentencing beyond natural justice.
Thugs began using corrosive liquids to attack their victims in response to the increased sentencing for carrying a knife.
Put simply, these violent criminals see acid as a safe weapon for them to carry.
This must end – and now.