A father has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for plotting an acid attack on his three-year-old son during a bitter custody battle with the child’s mother.
The parent and five other men were all unanimously found guilty by a jury of conspiring to throw sulphuric acid with intent to “burn, maim or disfigure” the boy in an attack inside a busy shop in July 2018.
A six-week trial at Worcester Crown Court was told that the youngster, who cannot be identified due to his age, suffered serious injuries to his face and arm at a Home Bargains store in the city.
The Crown alleged that the father, stung by his wife walking out on him in 2016, enlisted others to attack his son – in a bid to win more contact with the child by showing that his mother was unfit to care for him.
Jurors deliberated for nine hours before convicting the father, from Wolverhampton but originally from Afghanistan, on Wednesday.
Jurors also convicted co-conspirators Adam Cech, Jan Dudi, Norbert Pulko, Jabar Paktia, and Saied Hussini of plotting to spray sulphuric acid on the boy with intent to cause harm.
Martina Badiova has been cleared by a majority verdict of conspiring with six other men to carry out an acid attack on a three-year-old boy in a shop.
Supporters of Badiova cheered and applauded in the public gallery as the foreman of the jury announced they had found the 23-year-old, of Newcombe Road in Handsworth, Birmingham, not guilty.