A severely-injured engineer who elected to die at a euthanasia clinic 18 months after he had acid thrown over him spelled out his ex-girlfriend’s name with his tongue when asked who attacked him.
Mark van Dongen, 29, was left paralysed from the neck down, unrecognisable and all but blinded after the alleged attack by Berlinah Wallace, 48.
Mr van Dongen suffered 15 months of pain before being granted euthanasia in his native Belgium. He died at a suicide clinic in January.
His father Cornelius Van Dongen today told Bristol Crown Court that took about four months for his son to communicate after the incident.
Using an alphabet sheet, Mark spelled out the name ‘Berlinah’ with his tongue, when asked who had attacked him.
In a highly-unsual move, prosecutors have since charged Wallace with murder on the grounds the attack directly resulted in her ex’s death.
Cornelius Van Dongen arrives at Bristol Crown Court today to give evidence in the murder trial of his son Mark’s ex-girlfriend Berlinah Wallace. Wallace is accused of directly causing the death of Mark (right) in an acid attack 18 months earlier
‘Jealous’ Wallace reportedly hid her boyfriend’s passport so he could not return to the Netherlands and threw boiling water over him in a previous attack
Mark’s father said he later regained speech he told how Wallace had shouted ‘If I can’t have you no one can’ before the attack.
At the hospital, Mark had also shouted that he wanted to die, the court heard.
Following hospital treatment in Bristol, Mark was transferred to a care home in Gloucester, the court heard.
With his voice breaking with emotion, Belgium-based Mr Van Dongen said: ‘He wanted to return to a normal life, that is what he wanted. He wanted me to return to work.
‘He called me and he was very distressed. So I got in my car and drove straight to Bristol.
‘I thought I would spend an hour napping in my car. I heard Mark scream so I rang the bell and at one point they opened the door.
‘Mark was lying there in his own faeces and no-one wanted to help him. I got towels from my car and washed him.’
It was after that Mr Van Dongen transferred his son from Gloucester to a hospital in Belgium.
Mark, a Dutch national living in Bristol at the time of the attack, pictured in his father Kees
Mr Van Dongen said the Belgium hospital nurses needed to get used to the way he looked.
He said: ‘I spent 23-and-a-half hours a day with him until he died.’
The father’s testimony can after Mr van Dongen gave evidence ‘from the grave’ yesterday – with jurors being shown a police interview in which he described the attack at the flat he shared with Wallace.
‘She woke me up and said, “If I can’t have you no one can”,’ he recalled. ‘And she laughed and just threw the acid, it was a square box with about an inch of acid.’
Mr van Dongen ran out into the street screaming in pain before a neighbour took him upstairs, put him in a shower and called 999. He screamed all the way to hospital, telling paramedics: ‘Kill me now, if my face is left looking like this. I don’t want to live.’
Police found Wallace with a paintbrush and a piece of cloth. Asked what injured Mr van Dongen, the fashion student replied: ‘Acid. I was using it to distress some fabric.’
Bristol Crown Court heard the couple had been seeing each other for five years and lived in Redland, an upmarket area of the city.
Wallace claims the acid was in the flat because Van Dongen wanted to trick her into drinking it
Their relationship ran into trouble when Mr van Dongen started seeing another woman in August 2015. Shortly before his death, he had told his colleagues that Wallace had been violent toward him – they said that he ‘seemed genuinely scared’ of her, the court heard.
Jurors were told Wallace bought a bottle of sulphuric acid on Amazon and spent weeks searching for news stories and graphic pictures relating to acid attack victims.
The couple exchanged messages vowing to make the relationship work again on September 22, the night before the attack.
Following his injuries, Mr van Dongen was kept in intensive care unit for six months before being moved to a burns ward, spending 14 months in hospital.
His left leg was amputated below the knee, he lost the vision in his left eye and was left partially sighted in his right eye.
He eventually regained speech but was permanently paralysed from the neck down and fell into depression.
Adam Vaitilingam QC, prosecuting, said: ‘Sometimes he said he wanted to live, at other times that he wanted to die.’
Needing constant care, he returned home by ambulance to Overpelt, Belgium, where doctors confirmed he was paralysed for life and on maximum pain relief.
Mr van Dongen applied for euthanasia, which was approved by three consultants who said his suffering was unbearable.
Richard Smith QC, defending, said: ‘It is Berlinah Wallace’s case that that evening, as he had often done before, Mark had encouraged her to consider drinking the sulphuric acid they had bought for clearing the drains.’
She denies two charges, one of murder and one of applying a corrosive fluid. The trial continues.
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