Xeneral Webster, 19, was sentenced to 17 years in a British prison for manslaughter after 47-year-old nurse Joanne Rand died following an acid attack.
Webster was sentenced by Reading Crown Court on Tuesday afternoon in what has been described as a first-of-its-kind case in the United Kingdom.
Judge Angela Morris handed down the extended sentence because he posed a “significant risk to the public”. He will serve two-thirds of that sentence before being considered for parole.
After the sentence was read out, he shouted abuse at the judge from the dock and said: “All of you will probably be dead by the time I am out of here, f*** you bro.”
CCTV had been shown to the court of the moments before the attack which occurred at 4:50 pm on Saturday, June 3rd, 2017 in a busy area of High Wycombe, in South East England.
Webster was walking around the town, having travelled the 30 miles there by train from London, with the intention of stealing a bicycle. He was carrying a bottle of maximum strength sulphuric acid.
He then got into a confrontation with a man and showed him the bottle of acid as a threat, resulting in the man kicking the bottle out of his hand. Ms Rand happened to be sitting on a bench nearby when the bottle flew in her direction.
Ms Rand has just visited the grave of her daughter who had died in a car accident before she was splashed from head to toe with the acid.
She suffered 5 percent burns over her body — the acid burning down to her muscle, in places — and suffered massive injuries before dying of sepsis and multiple organ failure 11 days later.
Ms Rand’s sister Jaqueline Joiner released a statement Tuesday, saying: “None of us can forget the day of the attack and the days following. Jo was taken to hospital in great distress and great discomfort… She was so scared she didn’t feel she could leave the safety of her home let alone return to work.”
“Sher suffered so much, she became angry, frightened, and distressed…the acid had eaten away from her skin down to her muscle… The day before Jo died, I will never forget the look in her eyes when she asked me, ‘Am I going to die?'”
Webster had been on trial for murder, but pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of manslaughter part-way through the hearing. He also pleaded guilty to separate charges of affray, possession of ammonia, and possession of a samurai sword.
This case is believed to be the first where an individual in the UK was convicted of an acid attack killing.
In May, Berlinah Wallace was jailed for life for a deliberate acid attack on her boyfriend Mark van Dongen which left him with such horrific injuries he was driven to end his life at a euthanasia clinic in Belgium.
Police revealed last year that Britain is one of the world’s worst countries for acid attacks, with more than 800 recorded each year — an average of two every day.
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