Worcester acid attack accused 'threatened to kill family'

The six men and one woman are charged with conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm

The father of a three-year-old boy who was badly injured in an acid attack previously threatened to kill his wife and children, a court has heard.

The mother of the boy, who cannot be named, told Worcester Crown Court she was scared of her husband.

Prosecutors allege he arranged the July attack on his son, leaving him with serious burns to his face and arm, during a parental custody dispute.

He and six other people deny conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm.

The boy was squirted with sulphuric acid at Home Bargains in the Tallow Hill area of the Worcester on 21 July.

'Kill someone'

Giving evidence via video-link, the mother told of how her estranged husband, 40, had threatened to kill her and their children after she left him in 2012.

"Whenever he became angry I was worried and trying to keep quiet," she said. "Because he told me himself whenever he becomes angry he can do anything, even kill someone."

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In 2016 she left him permanently, taking her three children with her to a refuge.

Asked why she never sought help, she told the court her situation would "get worse" as her husband would "be violent" with anyone who intervened.

The father, originally from Afghanistan, is alleged to have enlisted the help of others to attack the three-year-old in an attempt to show his wife was an "unfit mother" and thus win improved custody rights.

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The father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused alongside Adam Cech, 27, of Farnham Road, Jan Dudi, 25, of Cranbrook Road and Martina Badiova, 22, of Newcombe Road, Handsworth all of Birmingham; Norbert Pulko, 22, of Sutherland Road and Saied Hussini, 41, of Wrottesley Road, both in London and Jabar Paktia, 41, of Newhampton Road, Wolverhampton.

The trial continues.