Advertisement

Dad accused of organising acid attack on three-year-old son as custody row escalated

A jilted husband plotted a “cowardly” acid attack on his own three-year-old son in a bid to “manufacture evidence” that his estranged wife was a bad mother, a court heard.

The 40-year-old taxi driver, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of conspiring with six others to carry out the attack on his own child on July 21.

The youngster suffered serious burns to his face and arm after sulphuric acid was sprayed at him as he shopped for a birthday present in a Home Bargains store.

A court heard the father organised the attack due to an ongoing family court battle with his ex-wife after he demanded his children live with him.

An external shot of the Home Bargains store where the boy was shopping with his mother on July 21 when he was attacked. (SWNS)
An external shot of the Home Bargains store where the boy was shopping with his mother on July 21 when he was attacked. (SWNS)

He deliberately planned to injure his son so he could paint his wife in a “bad light” and prove she was an unfit mother in upcoming family court hearings, jurors were told.

On Tuesday the dad, from Wolverhampton, went on trial with alongside five men and a woman at Worcester Crown Court.

They are accused of conspiring to unlawfully or maliciously cast or throw sulphuric acid with intent to burn, maim, disfigure, or disable or cause grievous bodily harm.

He appeared in the dock alongside Slovakians Adam Cech, 27, and Jan Dudi, 25, of Handsworth, Birmingham, as well as Norbert Pulko, 22, of Tottenham, north London.

Officers prepare to enter Home Bargains, in Wolverhampton, on July 21, where the acid attack took place. (SWNS)
Officers prepare to enter Home Bargains, in Wolverhampton, on July 21, where the acid attack took place. (SWNS)

Martina Badiova, 22, of Handsworth, Birmingham, Saied Hussini, 41, of Harlsden, west London, and Jabar Paktia, 41, of Wolverhampton, also deny the same charges.

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC said the dad was the “driving force” behind the attack, which took place in at 2pm at the Shrub Hill Retail Park in Worcester.

He told the court the defendant had taken the separation from his wife “badly” and plotted the attack for “humiliating” him in front of his Muslim family.

He told the jury: “This case concerns a cowardly attack on a defenceless three-year-old boy in which he was squirted with a solution of sulphuric acid.

The scene of the attack which left the little boy needing hospital treatment. (SWNS)
The scene of the attack which left the little boy needing hospital treatment. (SWNS)

“At the time of the attack, the little boy was with his mother and his older brother and sister. The family had been shopping for a birthday present.

“As a result of the attack, the little boy suffered acid burns to his left forearm and his forehead which were treated in hospital.”

Mr Rees said Cech carried out the attack and was accompanied by Dudi and Pulko.

He told the court the couple had separated in April 2016 and his wife started divorce proceedings, by the time of the attack in July he the man had been granted fortnightly access.

The couple had entered into an arranged marriage in 2007 before she broke up with him in 2012 and things “came to a head” in 2016.

After begging her to come home, the dad then accused her of “humiliating him” and threatened to have her and the children killed in a Muslim country, the jury heard.

The court heard the dad even hired a private detective to spy on his wife and children and track her movements prior to the attack.

The court was also told how the gang had planned to target the boy outside his primary school a week before the incident but backed out at the last minute.

They also ran a series of “reconnaissance missions” before carrying out the acid attack.

Mr Rees added: “Just over a week earlier, on Friday, July 13, Norbert Pulko, together with the sixth and seventh defendants, Saied Hussini and Martina Badiova had spent hours loitering near the primary school attended that day by the boy and his older siblings.

“When their mother collected the children at the end of the school day, Pulko followed the group as they made their way towards the family car.

“He had an object of some sort in his hands, but for reasons that may be to do with the fact that other people were very close by, no attack was carried out at that point. ”

The trial continues.