An engineer who suffered horrific injuries in an acid attack allegedly carried out by his jealous ex-girlfriend died in a euthanasia clinic having decided he could not face a life of pain, her murder trial has been told.

The attack in Bristol left Mark van Dongen, 29, paralysed from the neck down, unrecognisable and all but blind.

Berlinah Wallace, 48, allegedly threw acid over his face and body after telling him: “If I can’t have you, no one else can.”

Dutch-born Van Dongen suffered 15 months of pain before being granted euthanasia in Belgium, where his family lived, in January 2017.

Wallace denies murder and applying a corrosive fluid with intent. The prosecution alleges that Van Dongen was driven to euthanasia by the physical and mental torment he suffered because of his former partner’s actions.

Adam Vaitilingam QC, prosecuting, told a jury at Bristol crown court that Wallace carried out the alleged attack at her flat in Ladysmith Road, Westbury Park.

“On 2 September 2015, the defendant had bought a bottle of sulphuric acid. She kept it in her kitchen,” Vaitilingam said. “At around 3am in the morning on 23 September, as Mr Van Dongen was sleeping in bed, she took the acid into the bedroom.

“She then went into the bedroom and woke him up. She laughed and said: ‘If I can’t have you, no one else can,’ and she threw the glass of sulphuric acid into his face.

“It covered his face and parts of his upper body and dripped on to his lower body as he moved about. Covered in burning acid, Mr Van Dongen ran out into the street in his boxer shorts, screaming for help.”

A neighbour took him upstairs, put him in a shower and called 999, and he was taken to Southmead hospital in Bristol.

“The injuries that he suffered were grotesque and horrific. His face and much of his body was grotesquely scarred,” the prosecutor said. “He lost the sight in his left eye and most of the sight in his right eye. He lost his lower left leg, which was amputated.

“He was confined to a hospital bed, for a long time unable to move anything other than his tongue. His physical condition improved a little. He regained the power of speech, though never the ability to move.

“But 15 months later, deciding that he could bear it no longer, he asked a euthanasia clinic in Belgium to assist him in taking his own life. He was examined by three consultants, who confirmed that this was, in their terms, a case of unbearable physical and psychological suffering despite maximum medical support.

“They agreed that the test for euthanasia was met, and on 2 January 2017 they inserted a catheter into his heart, which brought about his immediate death.

“It is the prosecution case that the defendant deliberately threw acid at Mr Van Dongen, intending to cause him serious harm. She admits throwing it but denies any intent to cause him harm. She says that she believed that what she was throwing over him was a glass of water.

“It is the prosecution case that the physical and mental suffering that he sustained from that deliberate acid attack were what drove him to euthanasia. Put simply, he could not bear to live in that condition. If that is right, we say, then she is guilty of murder.”

The high court judge Mrs Justice Nicola Davies told the jury the case was likely to attract publicity. “This case is likely to cause emotion,” she said. “Emotion cannot play any part in your deliberations. You have to put emotion to one side. Your approach to this case is to be cool, calm and objective.”

The court heard that Wallace was a part-time fashion student at the University of the West of England in Bristol, while Van Dongen worked in the construction industry. The pair had been in a five-year relationship, but split a few weeks before the alleged attack, with the victim moving in with his new girlfriend, Violet Farquharson.

Before the alleged attack, Farquharson began receiving silent phone calls and Wallace was given a police warning about harassment.

Shortly before his death, Van Dongen told his colleagues that Wallace had been violent toward him and had threatened to stab him, the court heard. They said he “was genuinely frightened” of her.

When paramedics arrived at the scene, Van Dongen was in the shower and a neighbour said it looked as though he had had grey paint poured over him, the court heard.

“He kept saying he couldn’t see and asked if he still had eyelids,” Vaitilingam said.

Police found Wallace with a paintbrush and a piece of cloth. Asked what had caused Van Dongen’s injuries, Wallace replied: “Acid. I was using it to distress some fabric.”

During police interviews, Wallace denied deliberately throwing the acid at Van Dongen, denied she had intended to hurt him and alleged that he had assaulted her.

“She said that it was Mark who had poured the acid into the glass, encouraging her to drink it with her tablets, but that she had not realised that it was acid,” Vaitilingam said.

Wallace had, however, carried out internet searches, including: “Can I die from drinking sulphuric acid?” and for news stories about people who had been victims of acid attacks, the court heard.

In hospital, Van Dongen, having seen his face in a mirror, screamed at doctors: “Kill me now. If my face is going to be left looking like this, I don’t want to live.”

Defence barrister Richard Smith told the jury Wallace had previously reported Van Dongen to police as a result of their volatile relationship.

Smith said: “It is understandable when you see someone covered in acid running from a building, you can understand that looks like a victim. It might not be all that it seems.”

By pouring the acid into the glass Van Dongen became “the author of his own misfortune”, he said. </s> Image copyright Family photograph Image caption Mark van Dongen died 15 months after being attacked in Bristol

A woman threw acid over her former partner in an attack that left him with such "grotesque" injuries Belgian doctors agreed to end his life.

Berlinah Wallace, 49, is accused of murder and applying a corrosive fluid to Dutch engineer Mark van Dongen in Bristol in 2015.

Mr van Dongen ran screaming into the street in his boxer shorts with "horrific" injuries before being taken to hospital, Bristol Crown Court heard.

Ms Wallace denies both charges.

The attack on 23 September left Mr van Dongen, 29, paralysed from the neck down, unrecognisable and all but blinded, Bristol Crown Court heard.

Ms Wallace allegedly laughed and told him "if I can't have you, no-one else can" before throwing a glass of sulphuric acid into his face.

Prosecutor Adam Vaitilingam QC said the defendant "deliberately threw acid at Mr van Dongen, intending to cause him serious harm".

"She admits throwing it but denies any intent to cause him harm. She says that she believed that what she was throwing over him was a glass of water."

Image caption Berlinah Wallace allegedly carried out the attack at her flat in Westbury Park, Bristol

Mr Vaitilingam said Mr van Dongen's "physical and mental suffering" drove him to euthanasia.

"Put simply, he could not bear to live in that condition. If that is right, we say, then she is guilty of murder," he added.

The court was told Mr van Dongen suffered 15 months of pain before being granted euthanasia in Belgium, where it is legal and where his family lives, in January 2017.

"He was examined by three consultants, who confirmed that this was, in their terms, a case of unbearable physical and psychological suffering despite maximum medical support," Mr Vaitilingam added.

"They agreed that the test for euthanasia was met, and on 2 January 2017 they inserted a catheter into his heart, which brought about his immediate death."

'Cruel observation'

The court heard Mr van Dongen and Ms Wallace had been in a five-year relationship but split a few weeks before the alleged attack, with the victim moving in with his new girlfriend Violet Farquharson.

Richard Smith QC, defending Ms Wallace, told jurors it was Mr van Dongen who had poured the sulphuric acid in a glass for her to drink.

"Mark van Dongen might be the author of his own misfortune," he added.

"He planned to make her suffer, not him. If that is right then his plan has gone horrendously wrong."

Mr Smith told the jury that Mr van Dongen and Ms Wallace were physically abusive to each other and had both made claims about abuse from the other.

He added: "In the dark times of this difficult relationship there had been suggestions made to her by Mark van Dongen that she might alleviate her depression by taking sulphuric acid - a rather bizarre and cruel observation."

The case continues. </s> A woman is on trial charged with murder after an alleged sulphuric acid attack on a man who later died.

Berlinah Wallace, 48, of Ladysmith Road, Westbury Park, was charged with throwing a corrosive fluid with intention to burn, maim, disfigure, disable or do grievous bodily harm to Mark van Dongen, 29.

The alleged attack happened in Ladysmith Road in September 2015.

The matter was due to be the subject of a trial but the Crown Prosecution Service received confirmation from Mr van Dongen's father in Belgium his son had died.

Wallace then pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of murder between September 22, 2015 and Jan 3, 2017.

The trial at Bristol Crown Court is presided over by The Honourable Mrs Justice Nicola Davies. </s> Indian man sentenced to death for killing woman with acid

NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian court has sentenced a man to death for killing his neighbor by throwing sulfuric acid at her for refusing to marry him three years ago.

It is the first death sentence given for an acid attack under stringent laws introduced by the government to curb crimes against women following the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012.

Prosecutors said the Mumbai court sentenced Ankur Panwar on Thursday after finding him guilty of killing the 23-year-old woman, who died of serious burn injuries.

They said Panwar followed the woman on a train from New Delhi where they lived and attacked her with acid as she got off in Mumbai to begin a nursing career with the navy. </s> A man who killed a woman by hurling acid in her face when she rejected his marriage proposal has been sentenced to death in India in what is being seen as a legal landmark.

Preeti Rathi, who was 23 when she was murdered, had just arrived from Delhi to join the Indian navy as a nurse.

Her neighbour Ankur Panwar attacked her after she rejected a marriage proposal.

Her threw sulphuric acid on her in a fit of jealously outside a railway station in Mumbai in May 2013.

She died in hospital of multiple organ failure the next month.

'The court has awarded the death penalty to Ankur Panwar. I convinced the court that the acid attack belonged to the rarest of rare cases, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told AFP.

Nikam added: 'This is a landmark judgement for such crimes. This is the first time that such a judgement has been passed for an acid attack-related case against a woman.'

Police said Panwar, a hotel management graduate, had committed the heinous crime out of jealously when she rejected his marriage proposal.

He had wanted to disfigure her face to destroy her career.

The victim's family welcome today's decision and said the death penalty should now be swiftly carried out.

'We had sought the death penalty since the beginning so the verdict is good. Now, we want it to be carried out without any delay,' Hitesh Rathi, Preeti's brother, told AFP.

Activists welcomed the sentence which they said would go a long way to preventing future attacks, but criticised the length of time taken to bring the offender to justice.

Sonali Mukherjee, whose own face was severely disfigured in 2003 by a group of men who have been convicted but are on bail pending an appeal, said: 'It is a welcome judgement but it has come too late. It took a fast-track court three years to punish the guilty.'

About 300 acid attacks were reported in India in 2015, according to the latest official crime figures.

Experts said these figures and similar ones in other South Asian countries are likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Deaths are rare but scores of survivors face lifelong scars and social stigma.

India's Supreme Court ordered states in 2013 to enforce restrictions on the sale of acid to try and curb attacks, but Mukherjee and other campaigners claim that it remains easy to purchase.

Panwar's lawyer said she would appeal the verdict - delivered at a special court dealing with crimes against women - to the Bombay High Court, Mumbai's highest.

'We are moving the case to the high court. There is no second thought about it,' Apeksha Vora told AFP.

During the trial, Vora had pleaded leniency for her client and said he was his family's sole breadwinner. </s> An Indian court sentenced a man to death on Thursday for murdering a woman by throwing acid on her face after she rejected his marriage proposal, in a landmark judgement.

Ankur Panwar was found guilty on Tuesday of hurling sulphuric acid on 24-year-old Preeti Rathi in a fit of jealousy outside a railway station in the financial capital Mumbai in May 2013.

Rathi, who was a neighbour of Panwar's in New Delhi and had just arrived in Mumbai to start a new job as a nurse, died in hospital of multiple organ failure the following month.

"The court has awarded the death penalty to Ankur Panwar. I convinced the court that the acid attack belonged to the rarest of rare cases," public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told AFP.

The Supreme Court says capital punishment should only be carried out in "the rarest of rare" cases in India, among a dwindling group of nations that still have the death penalty on their statute books.

"This is a landmark judgement for such crimes. This is the first time that such a judgement has been passed for an acid attack-related case against a woman," said Nikam.

Activists welcomed the sentence which they said would go a long way to preventing future attacks, but criticised the length of time taken to bring the offender to justice.

"It is a welcome judgement but it has come too late. It took a fast-track court three years to punish the guilty," said Sonali Mukherjee, whose own face was severely disfigured in 2003 by a group of men who have been convicted but are on bail pending an appeal.

About 300 acid attacks were reported in India in 2015, according to the latest official crime figures. Experts say these figures and similar ones in other South Asian countries are likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Deaths are rare but scores of survivors face lifelong scars and battle social stigma.

India's Supreme Court ordered states in 2013 to enforce restrictions on the sale of acid in a bid to curb attacks, but Mukherjee and other campaigners say it remains easy to purchase.

The victim's family applauded Thursday's decision, saying it should now be swiftly carried out.

"We had sought the death penalty since the beginning so the verdict is good. Now, we want it to be carried out without any delay," Hitesh Rathi, Preeti's brother, told AFP.

Police alleged Panwar, reportedly 26, and a hotel management graduate, had committed the crime out of jealousy after she rejected his marriage proposal and had wanted to disfigure her face to destroy her career.

Panwar's lawyer said she would appeal the verdict -- delivered at a special court dealing with crimes against women -- to the Bombay High Court, Mumbai's highest.

"We are moving the case to the high court. There is no second thought about it," Apeksha Vora told AFP.

Nikam successfully argued that Panwar's attack had been pre-meditated. Vora had pleaded leniency for her client, saying that he was his family's sole breadwinner. </s> Hawaii just made the mistake of becoming the eighth jurisdiction in the United States to allow assisted suicide.

We can learn a lot about the folly of this path if we look to other places here and abroad where assisted suicide already is legal. A quick survey turns up countless instances of the failures of these laws to safeguard the most vulnerable.

From Europe, there seems to be a constant stream of documented cases related to the practice of assisted suicide and euthanasia, which would give anyone pause.

In the Netherlands, the number of people with experience of mental illness being euthanized is rising by the day. There are known cases of such people being abused or coerced into death by people they should be able to trust. A whistle-blowing doctor in Belgium went to the Associated Press with the details of a dementia patient’s death by euthanasia – the patient had never formally asked to die.

A column in the Washington Post recounts another sad story of one case gone very wrong. In 2016, an otherwise healthy elderly woman with dementia, having made an ambiguous advanced directive to end her life “when the time was right,” was euthanized against her will at the request of her husband by a nursing home doctor whose assessment was that the patient’s suffering was “unbearable and incurable.” She prepared the lethal injection. The physician tried silencing the patient’s protests by slipping a sedative into her coffee. When the sedative failed, this doctor had the family of the patient restrain her so that she could administer the lethal injection.

The columnist rightly asks, “How many botched cases would it take to end euthanasia of the vulnerable?”

In January, a physically healthy 29-year-old suffering from depression was euthanized. The Daily Mail reported that in Holland in 2013, “a total of 42 people with ‘severe psychiatric problems’ were killed by lethal injection compared to 14 in 2012 and 13 in 2011.”

Are these abuses confined to Europe or are they the inevitable fruits of what is everywhere bad public policy? There is evidence for the latter.

In Oregon, Michael Freeland, who had a 40-year history of acute depression and suicidal ideation, not only received the lethal prescription but also was allowed to keep the drugs even when all other means of his taking his own life had been removed from his home.

Another Oregonian, Kate Cheney, who had been diagnosed with dementia, was first referred for the non-required psychiatric evaluation and denied the lethal dose. Her family shopped for a doctor until they found one who would sign off; the doctor’s report stated that her “choices may be influenced by her family’s wishes and her daughter, Erika, may be somewhat coercive.”

In fact, just this legislative session, there was a bill before the Delaware General Assembly that would sanction the assisted suicides of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This flies in the face of the central concerns of the disability rights community: Nothing in the proposed Delaware bill ensures that people actually have access to the pain relief, palliative care and home-based and community-based personal care services they need.

Moreover, just like all of the proposed bills and assisted suicide laws, the Delaware bill utterly fails to prevent coercion. Coercion to request lethal drugs, like any form of abuse, occurs behind closed doors.

Let’s all note how legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia has led to the tragic death of vulnerable people. Whether in Europe, Canada, or even here in the U.S., this public policy push is unsuccessful at instituting any structures that would protect those who are most vulnerable from abuse and coercion.

We can avoid making the same mistake here by rejecting such laws and proposals altogether.

Matt Valliere is executive director of Patients Rights Action Fund, a national organization that opposes assisted suicide. </s> German public prosecutors on Monday said they had brought new charges against a killer nurse already serving a life sentence for murdering two patients, accusing him of killing another 97 people with lethal injections.

BERLIN: German public prosecutors on Monday said they had brought new charges against a killer nurse already serving a life sentence for murdering two patients, accusing him of killing another 97 people with lethal injections.

If found guilty, it would make him Germany's deadliest serial killer.

The man, identified only as Niels H. under reporting rules, has admitted to deliberately injecting patients at two clinics in northern Germany with deadly drugs and then trying to revive them in order to play the hero.

Prosecutors in the northern German city of Oldenburg said an investigation and toxicology reports showed that the accused also gave 35 people at a clinic in Oldenburg and 62 at one in nearby Delmenhorst life-threatening medicines.

Prosecutors said Niels H. should have been aware that the drugs he was giving his patients could cause ailments ranging from possible cardiac arrhythmia, ventricular fibrillation to hypotension.

"From the prosecutorial point of view, the accused Niels H. accepted, at least tacitly, in all cases the death of the patients due to the effects of the drugs," the prosecutors said in a statement.

The new charges come in addition to two counts of murder for which an Oldenburg court sentenced him to life in prison in 2015.

Ten years ago, a German nurse was convicted of killing 28 elderly patients. He said he gave them lethal injections because he felt sorry for them. He was sentenced to life in prison.

In Britain, Dr. Harold Shipman was believed to have killed as many as 250 people, most of them elderly and middle-aged women who were his patients. Known as Dr. Death, Shipman was sentenced to 15 life terms in 2000; he died prison in 2004, apparently a suicide. </s> First capital punishment in Maharashtra in an acid attack case

In the first such order in an acid attack case in Maharashtra, a special women’s court here sentenced Ankur Panwar to death on Thursday. He was convicted of the charge of throwing acid on Preeti Rathi at Bandra station in 2013 after she chose to pursue her nursing career, declining his proposal for marriage.

Special Judge Anju S. Shende said: “According to the mitigating and aggravating circumstances, the facts of the case and the recent acid attack judgments by the Supreme Court, the accused is sentenced to death… , subject to confirmation by the Bombay High Court.”

She said the accused could appeal against the judgment within 30 days.

The court gave its judgment based on the statements of eyewitnesses and the fact that he was unable to explain the acid marks on his hand. It observed: “He wanted to have her and he could not get her, that is why he wanted to destroy her. The height of brutality in acid attacks is more than that in the cases of rape. Rape is considered as destroying the very soul of the victim, but even then if she is kept at a safe place she can stay without disclosing her identity; but in the case of an acid attack, they [the victims] have to move around with their bodies. I consider him a sadist as called by the prosecutor and I did not find that he could be reformed.”

On May 2, 2013, Preeti came from New Delhi to Mumbai by train to take up a nursing job at the INHS Asvini Hospital.

Panwar, Preeti’s neighbour in Narela, followed her on the same train and threw acid at her when she alighted at Bandra.

The Mumbai District Legal Services Authority awarded Rs. 2,02,000 to Preeti’s family after she died of burns and injuries a month after the attack.

Defence lawyer Apeksha Vora said Preeti had died because of medical negligence as the acid was not proved to be sulphuric acid, and Panwar was falsely implicated because he was arrested seven months after the incident. However, Special Public Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam said Panwar threw the acid on Preeti as she wanted to pursue her career in Mumbai and he wanted to marry her.
A woman goes on trial in England accused of murdering a man who was voluntarily euthanised in Belgium after she allegedly attacked him with acid. Prosecutors say medical evidence indicates "he could not bear to live in that condition."