LAW SAYS ACID NOW A WEAPON
BLOOD & SAND New horror attack curbs
ACID can now be classed as a “highly dangerous” weapon by courts.
The updated sentencing guidance comes after a surge of attacks involving corrosive substances in recent years.
Many of these have left victims with horrific injuries including blindness.
The outcry led to calls for thugs who use acid as a weapon to be severely punished.
The Sentencing Council has now responded and released new guidelines for magistrates and judges when sentencing criminals who use acid.
Their advice reads: “An offensive weapon is defined in legislation as ‘any article made or adapted for use for causing injury, or is intended by the person having it with him for such use’.
“A highly dangerous weapon is, therefore, a weapon, including a corrosive substance (such as acid), whose dangerous nature must be substantially above and beyond this.
“The court must determine whether the weapon is highly dangerous on the facts and circumstances of the case.”
The most high-profile acid case in recent months involved Towie star Ferne McCann’s ex-lover Arthur Collins.
In January, he was jailed for 20 years after being convicted of an acid attack in a London nightclub last year which left 14 people injured.
The new sentencing guidelines come into force on June 1.
They also impose tougher punishments for thugs who film crimes and post them on social media.