A Muslim man is in a critical condition in hospital after having acid poured down his throat in an “honour attack” for having a relationship with a married woman.
Police have warned the woman, also a Muslim, that her life is now in danger and are discussing how best to protect her.
The 24-year-old man was attacked with sulphuric acid and stabbed by four men. He was blinded in one eye, suffered severe injuries to his tongue and throat and suffered 50 per cent burns. He was also stabbed twice in the back and attacked with bricks leaving him with fractures to his face.
The Danish man, who is of Asian origin, is said to have “insulted” a woman’s religious family by becoming close to her, although she has denied to officers that the relationship was sexual.
He was attacked at about 2am on July 2 in Marchant Road, Leytonstone, east London, close to a bedsit in Mayville Road he had rented a few weeks earlier to be near the woman.
One witness who saw the attack from her window said: “I saw four men lashing out and kicking him on the ground. I shouted and they ran off, then one went back and started on him again.
“The poor man got up and ran straight into a tree, then staggered back to his house, tugging at his burning clothes and banging on doors shouting for water.”
Another witness, Kay Dice, 52, added: “He was screaming and screaming, but he spoke little English and some people thought he may have just had too much to drink. I thought he had a huge cross on his back, but it was where his skin had peeled away.”
Community leader Imtiaz Qadir, of the Active Change Foundation, said: “Honour crime happens a lot in our community, especially the Pakistani community, but we do try to educate the people.
“It’s a cultural thing from back home. But this type of horrible crime is not exclusive just to Muslims, there have been cases in other religions.”
The man was on life support in Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, on Thursday where his condition was described as critical but stable.
Police have arrested seven young men. Five have been freed on bail and two, aged 19 and 25, have appeared in court charged with attempted murder.
The woman has been given an “Osman warning”, a formal alert that she is in danger.
More than 1,000 “Osman” warnings are issued a year following a legal ruling after police failed to protect Ahmet Osman and his father from his former teacher Paul Paget-Lewis in 1988 who was suffering from psychotic tendencies, shooting and wounding the youngster and killing his father and two others.