Berlinah Wallace, 48, of Ladysmith Road, Westbury Park, was charged with throwing a corrosive fluid with intention to burn, maim, disfigure, disable or do grievous bodily harm to Mark van Dongen, 29. Covered in burning acid, Mr Van Dongen ran out into the street in his boxer shorts, screaming for help.”

A neighbour took him upstairs, put him in a shower and called 999, and he was taken to Southmead hospital in Bristol. The attack on 23 September left Mr van Dongen, 29, paralysed from the neck down, unrecognisable and all but blinded, Bristol Crown Court heard. Ms Wallace allegedly laughed and told him "if I can't have you, no-one else can" before throwing a glass of sulphuric acid into his face. Prosecutor Adam Vaitilingam QC said the defendant "deliberately threw acid at Mr van Dongen, intending to cause him serious harm". "She admits throwing it but denies any intent to cause him harm. She says that she believed that what she was throwing over him was a glass of water." Image caption Berlinah Wallace allegedly carried out the attack at her flat in Westbury Park, Bristol

Mr Vaitilingam said Mr van Dongen's "physical and mental suffering" drove him to euthanasia. "Put simply, he could not bear to live in that condition. If that is right, we say, then she is guilty of murder.”

The high court judge Mrs Justice Nicola Davies told the jury the case was likely to attract publicity. Berlinah Wallace, 48, allegedly threw acid over his face and body after telling him: “If I can’t have you, no one else can.”

Dutch-born Van Dongen suffered 15 months of pain before being granted euthanasia in Belgium, where his family lived, in January 2017. "He was examined by three consultants, who confirmed that this was, in their terms, a case of unbearable physical and psychological suffering despite maximum medical support," Mr Vaitilingam added. "They agreed that the test for euthanasia was met, and on 2 January 2017 they inserted a catheter into his heart, which brought about his immediate death." 'Cruel observation'

The court heard Mr van Dongen and Ms Wallace had been in a five-year relationship but split a few weeks before the alleged attack, with the victim moving in with his new girlfriend Violet Farquharson. “She said that it was Mark who had poured the acid into the glass, encouraging her to drink it with her tablets, but that she had not realised that it was acid,” Vaitilingam said. It might not be all that it seems.”

By pouring the acid into the glass Van Dongen became “the author of his own misfortune”, he said. “This case is likely to cause emotion,” she said.
A woman goes on trial in England accused of murdering a man who was voluntarily euthanised in Belgium after she allegedly attacked him with acid. Prosecutors say medical evidence indicates "he could not bear to live in that condition."