Jailed, father who set up acid ‘honour’ attack on own son, 3
A FATHER obsessed with maintaining his ‘ honour’ was jailed for 16 years last night after plotting an acid attack on his three-yearold son in a custody battle.
The 40- year- old Afghan enlisted five others to help carry out the attack in a Home Bargains store to paint the boy’s mother as ‘unfit’ while the couple fought for custody of their three children.
He had previously asked an imam for permission to kill his family because they had ‘humiliated’ him by fleeing temporarily to a refuge, jurors were told.
In a victim impact statement read to the court following his conviction yesterday, the former wife, who is also from Afghanistan, warned she would be in greater danger upon his release because ‘honour matters everything’ to the defendant.
The mother – who along with the father cannot be identified for legal reasons – told how the couple had watched a YouTube video about a girl killed by her father.
She said: ‘While watching I commented, “that’s impossible, how can a father kill his daughter?” He said, “his daughter must have done something wrong”. That’s our culture... They call it honour killing... This is what he believes.’
Footage played during the sixweek trial showed co-defendant Adam Cech, 27, squirt the liquid at the boy as he looked at a display of footballs with his brother.
Seconds later, accomplice Jan Dudi, 25, made an audio recording of the boy screaming ‘I hurt, I hurt, I hurt’ on Facebook Messenger to provide the father with ‘evidence’ his plan was carried out.
The three men were convicted of conspiring to unlawfully or maliciously cast or throw sulphuric acid with intent to burn, maim, disfigure or disable the minor, or do grievous bodily harm. Norbert Pulko, 22, and Saied Hussini, 42, from London, and Jabar Paktia, 42, from Wolverhampton, were convicted of the same charge.
Martina Badiova, 23 – who like Dudi and Cech lived in Birmingham – was cleared of the charge.
Worcester Crown Court heard the child suffered serious injuries to his face and arm. Although he has made a good recovery, he will be scarred for life.
The boy’s father, stung after his wife walked out on him in 2016, intended to ‘mark the child’ to win more contact by showing his mother was unfit to look after him. Jurors deliberated for nine hours before convicting the father, from Wolverhampton.
Sentencing, Judge Robert Juckes QC said the ‘well-planned... monstrous’ attack last July had sickened even ‘battle-hardened’ fellow judges. He said: ‘Everyone asked what on earth would lead a father to have acid sprayed upon his own son – what kind of people would carry out such an attack?
‘I started this trial in the hope I might gain some insight and some answer... but I have not.’
Hussini was sentenced to 14 years, while the other four were each jailed for 12 years.