Acid attacker cleared of murdering ex-boyfriend
Woman guilty of throwing a corrosive substance with intent at man who went on to end his life in clinic
A JEALOUS woman whose ex-boyfriend ended his life after she threw acid over him has been cleared of murder as photographs emerged of the scorched bed where he was attacked.
Mark van Dongen, 29, was left paralysed apart from his tongue following the attack by Berlinah Wallace. After 16 months of “unbearable constant physical and psychological pain” he asked a euthanasia clinic to end his life.
In a legal first, Wallace was charged with murder, but was cleared by a jury at Bristol Crown Court yesterday. She was found guilty of throwing a corrosive substance with intent.
At the end of the trial, photographs were released showing the blackened bed where Mr van Dongen, an engineer, was woken at about 3am to hear Wallace say, “If I can’t have you, no one else will”, before throwing sulphuric acid over him. His injuries were so bad that Detective Inspector Paul Catton, the officer in charge, did not show his team the photos.
Outside the court, Mr van Dongen’s father, Cornelius van Dongen, paid tribute to his son and “best friend”.
“Mark was so brave when confronted with the hellish pain and disabilities inflicted upon him, but eventually it became too much,” he said. “He died in dignity and will live on in the hearts of his family and friends. I am very disappointed in the outcome. There are only losers. I hope that Mark can now rest in peace.”
Dutch-born Mr van Dongen had left Wallace, a fashion student, after suffering domestic abuse at her hands and started a new relationship. Weeks before the attack, he had called police to complain that she was harassing him, and just days after officers contacted her, she ordered the acid online.
Mr van Dongen was initially only able to communicate by sticking out his tongue when his father pointed at a letter so it took him nearly 10 months to be able to tell police what happened. A video of him from his hospital bed was played to the jury. He told officers that he had gone to Wallace’s flat on the night of the attack on Sept 23 2015 because he “felt sorry for her”.
“She woke me up and she said that, ‘if I can’t have you, no one can’,” Mr van Dongen said. “She laughed and just threw the acid. It was a square box with about an inch in it. I was running in the street in my boxer shorts. They fell apart because the acid had eaten them away.”
Describing the immediate aftermath, Dr Nic White, a neighbour, said she awoke to find him shouting in the street and thought he was playing a prank.
She told the BBC: “He looked a really odd colour on his head and shoulders. My doorbell rang and I knew there was something desperate going on. He looked like he was covered in mud. I later realised that was his skin melting.”
The metal on her doorbell remains corroded from the acid on his skin.
Mr van Dongen said he knew Wallace attacked him: “Because she was jealous. Because I left her.”
After the attack he was taken to Southmead hospital, where Dr Rachel Oaten said he let out a “blood-curdling scream” and shouted: “Kill me now.”
When a care home in Gloucestershire proved unsuitable, his father arranged for him to be transferred to Maria Hospital in Overpelt, Belgium, on Nov 23 2016. His father said his son wanted to return to a “normal life” but was told that his paralysis could not be cured.
“He completed his application for euthanasia. He said that ‘my life has come to nothing and there is nothing left’.” He died nearly six weeks later.
Wallace faces sentencing next week.