Berlinah Wallace jailed for life for 'sadistic' acid attack on Mark van Dongen

Wallace left Van Dongen with such terrible injuries he was driven to euthanasia

A woman has been jailed for life after being found guilty of a “sadistic and evil” acid attack that left her former partner with such terrible injuries that he was driven to euthanasia.

Berlinah Wallace threw sulphuric acid over Mark van Dongen in a fit of jealousy and rage after he began a relationship with another woman.

Wallace was told she would have to serve 12 years – minus time she has spent on remand – before she could be considered for parole.

Outside court, the victim’s father, Kees van Dongen, said that the minimum term was not long enough and argued she should never be released.

He said: “I am very pleased she is going to be locked up for 12 years, but really this is too little, as we as a family have been sentenced for life. I hope she messes up and doesn’t ever come out of prison again.

“There are only losers in this case. This has completely ruined our lives – financially and as a family. Our home has fallen apart. I hope we can start to pick up the pieces and rebuild.”

Avon and Somerset police said it believed it was the first time someone had been jailed for life for an acid attack.

Senior investigating officer DI Paul Catton said: “The sentence, which I believe is the first life sentence handed to someone involved in an acid attack, reflects the gravity of the crime Wallace committed, her refusal to accept responsibility and the horrendous consequences her actions had.”

'Kill me now': the acid attack that led Mark van Dongen to euthanasia Read more

The court heard Wallace, a former fashion student, threw the acid at van Dongen, an engineer as he lay in her bed, while laughing: “If I can’t have you, no one can.”

Van Dongen, who is originally from Holland, spent more than a year in hospital in Bristol after the attack before family and friends hired a private ambulance to take him to Belgium, where the 29-year-old applied for euthanasia.

Wallace, 49, was found guilty by a jury at Bristol crown court of throwing a corrosive substance with intent but was cleared of murder. Her defence argued that Van Dongen had died at the hands of an unknown doctor in Belgium rather than Wallace and so she could not be guilty of his killing.

Mrs Justice Nicola Davies, the trial judge, called the attack premeditated, sadistic, malicious and callous.

Branding Wallace manipulative, controlling and dangerous, she told her: “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.”

She said Van Dongen was targeted by Wallace when he was vulnerable and almost naked. Her focus was his face and then his body.

Wallace sat in the dock showing little emotion as the judge detailed the “catastrophic and life-changing injuries” Van Dongen had suffered as well as emotional and psychological damage.

She said Wallace told “lie upon lie” about what had happened and sought to destroy Van Dongen’s “name and character” by claiming he was abusive. The judge said Van Dongen was frightened of Wallace – and was right to be so.

Davies said the purchase of the acid used in the attack was not random and Wallace had carefully researched the effects of sulphuric acid.

She said: “You chose your moment for the attack. It occurred when Mark van Dongen, wearing only boxer shorts, was asleep in the bed which you had shared in your flat. Vulnerable, almost naked, he awoke but had no real opportunity to avoid the focus of your acid attack, namely his face and body.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mark van Dongen. Photograph: PA

Davies said the doctors in Belgium had concluded Van Dongen’s was a case of “unbearable physical and psychological suffering despite maximum medicinal support”.

But she said she was not sentencing Wallace on the basis that as the result of his injuries Van Dongen chose to end his life. “I do sentence you for the harm which you inflicted, the catastrophic and life-changing injuries, 15 months of acute physical and psychological suffering,” she said.

The judge said Wallace had carefully plotted her defence – that Van Dongen had poured the acid into a glass on her bedside table – even before the attack.

She said Wallace had looked up a newspaper article before the assault in which a man was alleged to have tricked his girlfriend into drinking acid. “It was another example of the planning which preceded the throwing of the acid,” she said.

Davies said Wallace had used “emotional blackmail” to get Van Dongen back to her flat on the night of the attack. She said she believed she acted after Van Dongen had made it clear that he was leaving her.

Speaking about Wallace’s anger issues, the judge highlighted that she had told a psychiatric nurse about an “adrenaline rush” she felt when someone said the wrong thing and felt she “could destroy everything ”. The judge added: “Your conduct can properly be described as sadistic.”

Van Dongen’s face and much of his body were severely scarred after the attack. The acid burned through 25% of his body surface. He was paralysed from the neck down, lost most of his sight and his lower left leg had to be amputated.

A spate of acid attacks has led the government to move to reclassify sulphuric acid. Later this year, a licence will be needed to legally buy the substance above a certain concentration.

The minister for crime, safeguarding and vulnerability, Victoria Atkins said:

“This tragic case illustrates the devastating consequences of acid attacks and we are determined to put in place the measures to end these appalling acts of violence.

“These crimes are unacceptable and the government is taking action to bring a stop to them. Our recent change to the Poisons Act means that from July, members of the public must hold a valid Home Office licence to acquire, possess or use the acid used in this attack.”