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
Steven Morris
@stevenmorris20
Wed 23 May 2018 10.29 BSTLast modified on Wed 23 May 2018 11.35 BST
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A woman has been jailed for life after being found guilty of a “sadistic” 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.
She was told she would have to serve 12 years – minus time she has spent on remand – before she could be considered for parole.
The judge, Mrs Justice Nicola Davies, called the attack premeditated and sadistic. She said Wallace was manipulative, controlling and dangerous.
Van Dongen spent more than a year in hospital in
Bristol 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.
Van Dongen’s father, Kees, watched from the public gallery as she was sentenced. He shook his head as Wallace, who showed little emotion, was led away and there were tears in his eyes as the judge thanked him for the dignity he had shown during the court proceedings.
He had called for Wallace
to be jailed for the rest of her life, claiming she was a danger to society.
Reading out a victim impact statement, Kees van Dongen told the court how his “gentle” son had explained why he wanted his life to end. He said he had told him: “Dad, I’m tired of fighting – I’ve suffered so much pain and I can’t take any more. Please let me go.”
The court heard Wallace, a former fashion student, threw the acid at Van Dongen, an engineer, while laughing: “If I can’t have you, no one can.”
The judge called it a “malicious and callous” attack. She told Wallace: “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.”
Mark van Dongen. Photograph: PA
She said Van Dongen had been targeted by Wallace when he was vulnerable and almost naked. The judge said her focus was his face and then his body.
Davies said she had done nothing to help him when he was screaming in pain. Wallace sat in the dock as the judge detailed the “catastrophic and life-changing injuries” he had suffered as well as emotional and psychological damage.
She said Wallace had 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 Van Dongen had supported Wallace financially and emotionally and that she had carefully planned the attack. “In throwing the acid you knew exactly what you were doing.”
She said Wallace had thrown hot water over Van Dongen in the past and scratched him. She told Wallace: “Anger is a part of your character.”
In the witness box, Wallace said she had a troubled childhood in South Africa. The judge told her: “I treat much of what you say with considerable caution.” She added that nothing excused what Wallace did.
The judge 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.”
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.”
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. But she said she believed Van Dongen had made it clear that he was leaving Wallace.
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 around”. The judge added: “Your conduct can properly be described as sadistic.”
Five jurors returned to see Wallace sentenced.
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.
Wallace bought the sulphuric acid legally online for less than £10. Kees van Dongen vowed to campaign to tighten the laws on the sale of acid.
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.
Adam Vaitilingam QC, prosecuting, described the attack as “deliberate, sadistic”, with Wallace pouring the acid on Van Dongen’s face as he slept.
you gotta really hate someone to do some shyt like that. At least it wasn't a brehs life she ended 
Jesus 
bytch should get an insanity plea off that alone
