Acid attack anxiety grows in London

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This article was published 02/09/2017 (3189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON — Jabed Hussain said he was really lucky. The delivery driver was one of the latest victims in an alarming surge of acid attacks in Britain.

He was still trembling when he said, “But they didn’t get my face. They didn’t ruin me.”

Attacks by people throwing acid at their victims have tripled in the past three years in Britain, stoking fears that almost anyone can be the victim — from a moped rider to a banker or a politician.

The alarming rise comes amid a clampdown on weapons and fears of a frightening new crime fad involving teenage motorbike thieves using corrosive substances, in part because they are relatively easy to obtain.

Hussain, 30, was on his three-wheeled scooter, stopped at a light in East London last month, when he felt what he thought was water, doused on him by a pair of faceless teenagers in wraparound helmets, mounted on a motorbike beside him.

“Then I started to feel the burning and I knew instantly what it was,” Hussain said. “Because this is what we are all fearing.”

He ripped off his helmet and began clawing at his clothes. His assailants stole his bike and sped away, as Hussain begged passing motorists for help.

“I must have looked like a madman,” he said. “Nobody would roll down their windows for me.”

The United Kingdom is a safe country, but the spike in acid attacks is clearly unnerving — when a possible assailant is anyone with bottle of bleach, ammonia or drain cleaner.

“Because it is not like seeing a gun or a knife,” said Rachel Kearton, assistant chief constable of the Suffolk Police, the National Police Chief Council’s top investigator on corrosive attacks.

“Because the intent is to maim and disfigure.”

According to London Metropolitan Police and regional police chiefs, there were more than 700 acid attacks last year, double the number in 2015.

Kearton told the Washington Post it appears likely that acid attack numbers will increase by another 50 per cent this year.

Police chiefs say there isn’t a single motive behind the attacks, but acknowledge gangs and robberies seem to be playing a part. Some of the attackers are only teens — of those whose ages are known, 21 per cent are under the age of 18. The most common corrosive liquids are bleach, ammonia and acid.

According to leaders in London’s city hall, “many recent acid attacks are connected to violent and aggressive organized scooter theft.”

Scooter drivers have staged a number of protests to highlight their concerns about being doused with acid in attempted bike robberies.

Police, victims and the gang members agree — there is just something terrifying about being splashed with acid.

Late last year, a London business executive named Gina Miller took the British government to court to decide if it could trigger Brexit, Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, without parliamentary approval.

Since then, Miller said she’s been living in fear someone will attack her.

“I have been getting threats of having acid thrown in my face for months and months now. When I see someone walk toward me on the street with a bottle of water or something, I just freak out,” she told Verdict magazine.

“My life has completely changed,” she said.

Ohid Ahmed, a councillor from Jabed Hussain’s East London neighbourhood, said while acid was certainly the latest weapon of choice for assailants, there was something deeper going on.

“If you want to steal a moped, you can steal a moped,” he said. The criminal can use a hammer, a knife or his fists, he said. “But throwing acid is a hate crime.”

Some places are taking extra precautions. Officials in some court buildings are asking anyone entering a court with a water bottle — visitors, judges, lawyers — to take a “ sip test” to prove their liquid isn’t acid.

Britain is “near the top, or the top of the pack globally,” when it comes to reported attacks, said Jaf Shah, executive director of Acid Survivors Trust International, a London-based non-profit. He said other countries, including India, likely have far more attacks, but they remain unreported.

— Washington Post