This was not my intended post for today, however, it was one that really needed much more attention. For the reasons that will be explained below. This is a news story that you are most probably completely unaware of. I stumbled across it quite accidentally. The perpetrator and the victim are not quite ‘push the agenda’ right. The crime just doesn’t fit the present day meme pushing undertaken in order to manage your perception. More commonly we see this type of story getting global coverage if it fits these acceptable stereotypes
- - occurring in a third world nation
- - man as perpetrator (misogynist) against woman
- - white man (privileged of course) oppressing black person (male or female)
The news below fits none of our commonly presented concepts- so it’s not been pushed onto our global awareness. There’s no hashtag to spread the news via twitter. No facebook outrage.And very limited news coverage. You’ll understand why soon enough. The incident occurred in Ireland. Not Pakistan. The perpetrator is a beast. Clearly a liar. Probably a psychopath. In my opinion the perp is, without a doubt, a sick psychopath. Not only did the perpetrator plan out this attack, calculating how to carry it out then choosing afterwards to not aid the victim , instead opting to sit and chat on the phone and revel in the misery, pain and harm caused by this attackPerpetrator Berlinah Wallace- Female, blackVictim- Mark van Dongen (left) Male, white.Belfast Telegraph
A fashion student has been jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 12 years in prison for throwing acid over her former partner, who later died by euthanasia, in “an act of pure evil”.Berlinah Wallace, 48, poured sulphuric acid over face of Mark van Dongen, 29, was he slept in her flat in Westbury Park, Bristol at 3am on September 23 in 2015.She laughed and told the engineer: “If I can’t have you, no-one can,” before calmly chatting to an ex-boyfriend on the phone as Mr van Dongen fled in agony.The graduate was left in a coma for four months, suffered extensive burns to his body, was left blind in one eye, paralysed from the neck down and had to have his lower left leg amputated.
He suffered 15 months of excruciating pain before dying by euthanasia at a hospital in Belgium on January 2 2017.Wallace was acquitted of murder but convicted of throwing a corrosive substance with intent following a four-week trial at Bristol Crown Court.
Mrs Justice Nicola Davies described how Wallace bought a litre of 98% concentrated sulphuric acid on September 2 2015 after Mr van Dongen left her for another woman.She viewed 82 websites about sulphuric acid – including post-mortem images – and came up with her defence based on a court case of a man accused of tricking his partner into drinking it.
“You chose your moment for the attack,” the judge told Wallace, who remained emotionless.
“It occurred when Mark van Dongen, wearing only boxer shorts, was asleep in the bed which you had shared in your flat"
Your intention was to burn, disfigure and disable Mark van Dongen so that he would not be attractive to any other woman. It was an act of pure evil.
Mrs Justice Nicola Davies
“Vulnerable, almost naked, he awoke but had no real opportunity to avoid the focus of your acid attack, namely his face and then his body.“Immediately before you threw the acid, you said to Mark: ‘If I can’t have you, no-one can.’
“Nothing better demonstrates your malicious and callous intention than your refusal to provide any help, even when Mark was screaming in pain,” the judge said.
Mr van Dongen suffered burns to two thirds of his face, a large percentage of his upper chest, arms and upper thighs – with 25% of his body affected.A consultant at Southmead Hospital, where Mr van Dongen was taken after neighbours called 999, said he had never seen a patient with such extensive injuries following a chemical attack.
The judge said Wallace had told “lie after lie” about a man who had been unable to defend himself.Mr van Dongen told colleagues and his father that he was “scared” of Wallace, who had previously poured boiling water over him and scratched him.“He was right to be so because he had some idea of what you were capable of,” the judge said.
Your conduct can properly be described as sadistic. Mrs Justice Nicola Davies
“On the clearest evidence you have been shown to be a manipulative and controlling woman who has lied without compunction or conscience in an attempt to avoid culpability.”
Speaking outside court, Mr van Dongen’s father said Wallace’s actions had “completely ruined” his family’s lives.
You can listen to an audio of the police interviewing her Additional reading hereEvil wears many masks