MAN JAILED FOR POURING BOILING SUGAR WATER ON WOMAN

Khaled Aziz was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison at Newcastle Crown Court for a series of assaults on a former friend. The court heard that on 7 April last year, Aziz arrived at the woman's home wearing a "Guy Fawkes-style" half mask, shouted at her and smashed plant pots in her garden. He then doused her with a fuel that smelled like petrol whilst threatening to set her on fire, and was seen searching for a lighter.

The following day, Aziz returned to the property, boiled a kettle of sugar water, grabbed the woman by the neck and poured the liquid onto her stomach. She required hospital treatment for first-degree burns as a result. Weeks later, Aziz entered her home whilst she slept and burned her back with hair straighteners whilst making threats to kill her. In a victim impact statement read to the court, the woman said the attacks had caused lasting physical, emotional and practical consequences she continued to deal with daily, and that she had genuinely believed during the assault that she would die.

Aziz, of West Holborn Road, South Shields, was convicted of the assaults at Newcastle Crown Court. The woman stated in her impact statement that the physical injuries had affected her ability to carry out everyday tasks and left her feeling vulnerable in her own body.