Acid Attack Epidemic Spills into Home Counties from Sadiq Khan’s London

herts
Hertfordshire Constabulary

Britain’s acid attack epidemic is spreading from its focal point in Sadiq Khan’s London to the historic Home Counties which surround it.

Figures released following a Freedom of Information request to the local police force have revealed that Hertfordshire, a traditionally peaceful county which was recently ranked the best place in Britain to raise a family by the UK Better Family Life Index, has experienced a sharp uptick in acid attacks, The Comet reports.

The county, home to the famous St. Albans Cathedral, suffered just one reported attack in 2013, but this had risen to eight by 2016 and an all-time high of nine the following year.

The figures were released following a particularly shocking attack which saw Dwane Matterson (right), a 26-year-old from Enfield, a borough in Sadiq Khan’s London, and Aaron Boyce (left), a 19-year-old of no fixed abode, and two other men force their way into a property in the small market town of Hitchin.

They sprayed the homeowner in the face with an acidic substance during the course of the aggravated burglary, in what Hertfordshire police described as a “terrifying ordeal”.

The numbers pale in comparison to the capital, which experienced 739 corrosive fluid offences between January and September 2017, 411 of which were violent.

Complete figures for the years from 2002 to 2016 indicate a rise in corrosive fluid offences which included violence of some 186 per cent, and police have conceded that London is now a global capital for such attacks.

Nevertheless, the increase in sleepy Hertfordshire points to a worrying trend of these once-rare attacks are becoming normalised beyond the crime-ridden metropolis.

“The use of corrosive substances to commit acts of violence is an extreme violent crime that aims to cause lasting physical and emotional damage to victims,” said a spokesman for Hertfordshire Constabulary.

“As with other police forces, we are dealing with a number of cases and we are continuing to collect data from across England and Wales to understand the scale and extent of these attacks and develop our ability to support and safeguard victims.”

The county has also experienced a surge in knife crime — another trend in common with London.

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