"the defendant threw the contents of the bottle in his face"
Ibrahim Khan, aged 22, of Slough, Berkshire, was jailed for eight years and four months following an acid attack on two men, including a childhood friend.
Reading Crown Court heard that he doused his friend in half a litre of sulphuric acid in an act of “vengeance”.
He had fallen out with Amar Hussain, who he had known since he was a young boy.
Khan had an argument with Mr Hussain on January 24, 2020. Khan, who was drunk, ended up throwing a brick through a window and the police were called.
Charles Ward-Jackson, prosecuting, explained that Khan called Mr Hussain the next day and threatened him, saying:
“You got my house raided by the police. I have got a sword. I am going to come and chop you up.”
On January 26, Mr Hussain was visiting a friend when Khan turned up at the doorstep in Granville Avenue, Slough.
Mr Ward-Jackson said: “The day of this incident, January 26 at 7:15 pm, the victim was visiting a friend, Thomas Allen.
“There was a knock at the door. The defendant was standing there on the doorstep and asked to speak to Mr Hussain.
“The defendant was standing there with what is described as a 500ml bottle of Coca Cola in his hand. Mr Hussain could see that the defendant was not in a friendly mood and tried to retreat and close the door but the defendant threw the contents of the bottle in his face and it went on his face and on his arm and immediately started burning.
“Mr Hussain realised it was acid of some sort and went back inside the house and started frantically washing himself in the bathroom.
“His friend, Thomas Allen, had gone to the door to see what was going on.
“The defendant was still spraying acid through the doorway and some of it hit Mr Allen on the arm and on the back of the neck.”
Mr Hussain was taken to hospital where doctors battled to save one of his eyes, the top layer of the retina of which had been removed when acid got into it.
Mr Hussain suffered life-changing injuries to the right side of his face. Mr Allen received burn injuries to his arms and back of the neck.
Khan handed himself in to police where he gave a no-comment interview. Despite a police raid on his home, the bottle used in the acid attack was never found.
Khan had seven previous convictions, including causing actual bodily harm, attempted robbery and possession of a knife in 2013 and assault on a constable in 2015.
He initially said he would deny the charges but later admitted one count of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and one count of causing grievous bodily harm without intent. A further charge of possessing an offensive weapon was ordered to lie on file.
Guy Wyatt, defending, said that his client felt regret for his actions.
Judge Paul Dugdale told Khan:
“You knew that Amar Hussain would be at Thomas Allen’s house.”
“You planned to attack him, you got a Coke bottle, half a litre, and in it, you put sulphuric acid and you did that intending to throw that into the face of Amar Hussain when you had the opportunity.
“His face will be scarred for the rest of his life because of what you did to him that day and his right eye may well remain at risk of problems into the future.
“It is an act which quite understandably causes members of the public real concern, real worry and anyone who commits that sort of act can expect to receive a very significant custodial sentence both as a punishment and as a need to protect the public from that kind of behaviour in the future.
“When you decide to do that kind of act, you cross a line of human behaviour, you do something which any right-thinking member of the public would find totally awful and once you have done it once, there is always in my view going to be a significant risk that you will do an act like that again.”
Khan was jailed for eight years and four months on May 15, 2020.
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