An accountant was facing an indefinite jail sentence today after hurling hydrochloric acid over three High Court lawyers in London.
Ashok Mahajan (55), who has a history of courtroom violence, launched the attack after losing a negligence action against a law firm.
The highly corrosive liquid left one of his victims screaming in agony as it seared into her eye. More of the liquid stung her mouth, splattered one of her arms and landed on her legs, melting her tights and burning her skin.
Two other lawyers, who were also doused, suffered damaged clothes and “stinging”. The acid also soaked oak panelling, scarring the varnish.
As “pungent” fumes left people gasping for breath, swearing Mahajan sprayed more of the solution over his victims. A courtroom tape recorded both his tirade and his victims’ cries of pain and shock.
Mahajan - veteran of a string of courtroom battles beginning with a 1986 custody fight for his son - was detained within minutes. But in evidence he said he had thrown only water, claiming the acid was planted afterwards as part of a conspiracy to frame him.
He claimed the British judicial system - which he branded “worse than Nazis” - had joined forces with police, Government “agents” and the medical profession to tamper with evidence and make him stand trial despite his poor health.
However, jurors at London’s Southwark Crown Court took just 47 minutes to decide he was lying.
The defendant, originally an Indian national but now a British citizen of Penpath Place, Wembley, north-west London, was unanimously convicted of three counts of assault intending to cause grievous bodily harm on October 15th last year.
Remanding him in custody until August 21st for pre-sentence and psychiatric reports, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith warned him he was also “ordering an assessment of his dangerousness” - the first step towards the possible imposition of an indeterminate sentence.