Berlinah Wallace Sentenced to life for Acid Attack2 min read

Berlinah Wallace, 48, has been given a life sentence in prison with a minimum term of 12 years for throwing sulphuric acid on her former partner.

It has been reported that Wallace threw the corrosive liquid on Dutch engineer Mark van Dongen in Bristol in 2015.

When on trial at the Bristol Crown Court, Wallace was cleared of murdering her former partner but found guilty for throwing acid at him with intent.

Van Dongen ended his own life two years after the attack at a Belgian hospital in January 2017.

At 29-years-old, he was paralysed from below the neck and lost an ear, an eye and his left leg after the attack.

The judge slammed Wallace for her ‘act of pure evil’ causing permanent disfiguration to another human life.

The case had revealed that the intent behind Wallace’s attack on her ex was so that no other woman would find him attractive.

Envy caused the loss of a life.

The judge revealed that before the attack occurred, Wallace said to van Dongen, “If I can’t have you, no one can”.

The Dutch engineer was attacked on 22nd September 2015 in the middle of the night at Wallace’s Westbury Park flat when he was asleep.

Almost naked, van Dongen had the acid thrown on him from a glass cup after his ex purchased it.

He staggered to call the police in excruciating pain.

Wallace reportedly told lies to the authorities during the two-year case, stating that she threw the liquid at her partner after he allegedly asked her to drink from it.

After the sentence was given, Kees van Dongen (Mark’s father) revealed to the press how relieved he was about Wallace getting jail time.

However, he says that the sentence was too late as his family “have been sentenced to life” with the death of his son.

Avon and Somerset police believed that this case is the first life sentence for an acid attack in the UK.