TWO people have been jailed for a total of 20 years for spraying acid into the
face of an innocent motorist during an unprovoked road rage attack.
Ashley Russell, 30, and Christina Storey, 32, sprayed acid over victim Darren
Pidgeon while he was cornered in his car, leaving him scarred for life.
Mr
Pidgeon, 29, spent 24 days in hospital following the attack, requiring
skin grafts to repair third degree burns caused by “extreme” acid.
He suffered third degree burns to five per cent of his body following the
attack on the evening of June 3 2014.
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Storey, from Wickford, Essex and Russell from Basildon, Essex, both denied
applying a corrosive fluid to a person with intent.
But a jury unanimously found them guilty.
Russell broke down in the dock at Basildon Crown Court as the verdicts were
read out, before a judge told him he must spend 12 years in prison.
Storey was handed an eight-year jail term.
During the trial, the court heard how residents tried to help the victim – but
Mr Pidgeon suffered damage to his ear and eye along with severe burns to his
face and scalp.
Describing the attack, Mr Pidgeon said the car stopped around three metres
away from him. He only had his window open because his car heating was
broken and it was too hot.
He said: “That is when the person ran to me and sprayed me and it covered
my face and body.
“I couldn’t get out. I would have to hit the car which was parked to get
out. There was no way I could get out.
“It [the acid] sort of got me around where my eyes are. When it hit my
eyes I sort of covered them.
“When something hits your face you just cover your face. He said: ‘What
is your problem?’”
Mr Pidgeon said he was punched around four times in the right temple through
the open window of his car.
He said: “The punches were flowing, that is when he was getting angry and
said ‘what have you got?’
“I was thinking I am in pain here and now he is punching me. I was in a
lot of pain.”
He added: “I could feel it straight away, it was hurting, it was really
hurting. I could feel it on my skin, I could feel it was burning. I have
never felt anything like it before.
“Why would someone do this to me?”
The court heard how Russell and Storey didn’t know Mr Pidgeon and had only
come across each other at a set of traffic lights where both were waiting to
move.
Moments earlier, Mr Pidgeon was approaching a roundabout when Storey pulled in
front of him.
Storey then followed Mr Pidgeon, where she boxed him in before approaching his
car.
Prosecutor Greg Unwin told the jury: “When he [Mr Pidgeon] got to the end
and he was turning around he put his car in reverse and recalled that the
red car had driven right in behind him and was blocking him from being able
to reverse and he was trapped and blocked in by the vehicle.
“The passenger of the red car then got out and ran around to Mr Pidgeon’s
driving side.
“He had the window down and he said words to the effect of, ‘have you got
a problem?'”
“And while Mr Pidgeon is still sat in his car with the window down the
man then squirted a liquid.
“Mr Pidgeon tried to turn away and put his arm up to protect himself from
the spray. He could feel a burning sensation.
“He also recalls being punched to the head through the open window.
“Mr Pidgeon has no idea why he was attacked.”