The toddler was heard screaming in agony after he was allegedly covered in the substance while looking for a birthday present with his mother. Photo / Supplied
The toddler was heard screaming in agony after he was allegedly covered in the substance while looking for a birthday present with his mother. Photo / Supplied
A jury in central England has convicted a man of plotting an acid attack on his three-year-old son amid a custody battle with the child's mother.
The 40-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the child's identity, was convicted in Worcester Crown Court with five others of conspiring to throw sulfuric acid with intent to "burn, maim or disfigure" the boy in an attack inside a busy Home Bargains shop in July 2018.
A seventh defendant was acquitted.
The man was convicted in Worcester Crown Court. Photo / Getty Images
Prosecutors allege that the father, who was originally from Afghanistan, enlisted others to attack his son to win more contact with the child by showing that his mother was unfit to care for him.
The child suffered serious injuries to his face and arm but is recovering.
The father messaged a friend the words "nailed it" hours after his three-year-old son was sprayed with acid at a bargain store, a court has heard.
The toddler was heard screaming in agony after he was allegedly covered in the substance while looking for a birthday present with his mother, according to The Sun.
The crown court was told of how the father sent a GIF to a friend which showed a blonde woman wearing an apron hours after the attack. It was accompanied by the caption "nailed it".
The prosecution also spoke of how three of the accused were all filmed on CCTV following the boy's mother into the bargain store. Footage was shown to the court.
It shows a man in a long sleeve shirt extending his arm to throw something at the boy before quickly walking away.
The court heard the child screamed "I hurt" repeatedly after the attack, which appeared to take only seconds to carry out.
Police claim they had also found one of the accused had searched news articles about the attack.
It's alleged the boy's father organised the attack in an attempt to show that his ex-wife could not keep their children safe.
Following the sentencing, the boy's mother said she "couldn't sleep for weeks" after the attack and had "repeat nightmares about what happened that day".
"It shocks me to think that people could be involved with doing this to a defenceless child," she said.
"It has been extremely hard to accept that my three-year-old child has been attacked in such a way and that his father was behind this.
Convicted were, clockwise from top left, Jan Dudi, Jabar Paktia, Norbert Pulko, Adam Cech and Saied Hussini. Photos / Supplied
She added: "How will I explain this to my son?"
The mother left her husband, taking their three children, in 2016.
The trial was told the defendant was seeking greater access to his children and he wanted to create evidence of injuries to show his wife to be an unfit mother after she opposed the application.
Judge Robert Juckes QC, sentencing, told them they had carried out a "monstrous" crime with "obviously strong acid", probably from a car battery.
He said: "It is an extraordinary thing in this case that not one of you, most of whom have no previous convictions, most of whom with families of your own, at any stage stood back and asked the question of yourself and others: 'what are we doing?'"
The five convicted co-conspirators were:
Adam Cech, 27 of Farnham Road, Birmingham Jan Dudi, 25, of Cranbrook Road, Birmingham Norbert Pulko, 22, of Sutherland Road, London Jabar Paktia, 42, of Newhampton Road, Wolverhampton Saied Hussini, also 42, of Wrottesley Road, London
Cech, Dudi and Pulko were captured on CCTV at the scene of the attack after following the boy and his mother to the store from their home in a Vauxhall Vectra.
Cech approached the child in the shop and squirted acid at him from a small plastic medicine-type bottle, claiming in the trial he had been threatened with a gun to do it.
Footage then showed the three men calmly making their escape, Pulko even stopping at the tills to buy two items.
After the attack, the boy screamed "I hurt" over and over again, jurors were told.
He has since made a "good recovery" and is living with his mother.
