'Burn her alive' - Sick South Shields torturer poured boiling sugar water on victim in series of attacks
A sick South Shields thug tortured a female in a series of attacks which included pouring boiling sugar water on her body.
A terrified woman got soaked with a petrol-like liquid, scalded with boiling sugar water and burned with hair straighteners during a shocking series of attacks by a brute she once had a brief relationship with.
The victim had not seen Khalid Aziz for about a year and would have considered him as a friend before he turned up at her door and attacked her three times last April.
‘Series of violent and frightening incidents’
Prosecutor Jane Foley told Newcastle Crown Court Aziz launched a "series of violent and frightening incidents" which have left the victim traumatised and forced her to move away.
Aziz, 32, of West Holborn Road, South Shields, South Tyneside, admitted affray and two charges of assault and has been jailed for four-and-a-half years with a 12 year restraining order.
Recorder Andrew Latimer said the woman suffered a "terrifying experience".
Miss Foley said the first attack happened on April 7 when the woman heard plant pots being smashed outside her home and banging on her front door.
When she opened it she saw a man wearing a Guy Fawkes style mask, who she immediately knew was Aziz.
Miss Foley said: "He shouted at her that he wanted compensation for wasting his time. He pushed past her into the house and there was a brief struggle before he left.
"He returned several times that same afternoon, she estimates about four times. One one return he was carrying a plastic bottle containing strong smelling liquid which he poured onto her while saying he would set her on fire.
"He searched for a lighter but as she didn't smoke he couldn't find one. She said she was terrified and the liquid smelled strong, like petrol although she was unsure whether it was flammable."
Aziz went back to the house a day later and barged his way in when the victim answered the door.
‘Burn her alive’
Miss Foley said: "He went into the kitchen and began crashing about. As she followed him in, shouting for him to leave, he took sugar from a jar, put it into the kettle and set it to boil.
"He told her he would burn her alive and poured boiling sugar water into her stomach, causing severe pain."
The court heard the first-degree burns developed into large blisters and was given morphine for the pain when she went to hospital.
On April 21 Aziz went back to the house again.
Miss Foley said: "She was asleep in bed when she heard the door and then the defendant's voice inside her bedroom.
"He used her hair straighteners from her bedside cabinet to burn her back."
The victim said she "genuinely believed I was going to die" and has been left with nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety and panic attacks.
She said she is now startled by sudden movements and loud noises and is still not able to have a kettle in her home.
The woman lost her job and had to relocate her home as a result of what happened.
Liam O'Brien, defending, said Aziz had a troubled childhood and started using drugs at the age of 12.
Mr O'Brien said Aziz was the victim of a machete attack around five years ago which left him with a permanent disability to one of his arms and resulted in him using crack cocaine on a daily basis.
The court heard since being remanded in custody Aziz had made progress and is drug freed.
Mr O'Brien said Aziz does have previous convictions but added: "What you have heard is the worst things the defendant has ever done in his life, by some distance."