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In late July 2015, 28-year-old civil engineer Mark Van Dongen was using an online dating site when he met a woman named Violet. Like Mark, Violet lived in the English city of Bristol. The two chatted online for a week before deciding to meet up for a coffee. The first date went so well that they arranged to go to the cinema together a few days later.
Affection quickly blossomed, and by mid-August the pair were contemplating a serious relationship. There was just one problem: Mark already had a girlfriend. Five years earlier he'd met a 40-year-old South African woman named Berlina Wallace through an online dating site. Despite the 18-year age gap between the two and the fact they lived in different countries, they hit it off.
Mark had been living in his home country of the Netherlands at the time, while Belenna was living in the United Kingdom. Mark flew to the UK to take Belenna on a date and the two became intimate. Mark returned to the Netherlands shortly after, but a few weeks later, Belenna contacted him with some news. She told him she was pregnant. Mark wanted to do the decent thing so he relocated to the UK.
He moved in with Berliner in Bristol, enrolled in university, and found work as an engineer on a large construction project. But after a few months, Berliner told Mark she'd miscarried the baby. Mark stayed in the relationship regardless, having developed strong feelings for Berliner. The majority of his income was used to support Berliner as well as her family back in South Africa.
Over the years, the relationship struggled, and by the time Mark met Violet, he'd been planning to leave Berliner for a while. He admitted the truth about his relationship status to Violet, and she wasn't exactly pleased by the news. The two decided to stop seeing each other until Mark sorted himself out. A few days later, Mark contacted Violet to say he'd ended things with Berliner and was moving into a hotel.
Mark and Violet agreed to rekindle their romance. However, Mark urged Violet not to send any more emails to his current address. His ex-girlfriend, Berlina Wallace, had hacked his account. At the end of August, Mark checked out of his hotel room and moved in with Violet. On the day he arrived, Violet was shocked by what she saw.
Mark had a fingernail gouge mark around his neck and nearly a dozen four-inch gouges on his back and chest. When Violet asked what happened, Mark said Berliner had attacked him. Later that day, Violet began receiving anonymous phone calls. When she picked up, the caller on the other line remained silent. Over the next 72 hours, she received 13 more of these calls.
Meanwhile, Mark's mobile phone was ringing around the clock. It was Berlina Wallace and she was not happy. Berlina switched between screaming at Mark to crying and hyperventilating. On September 2, Berlina made a call that finally pushed Mark over the edge. He contacted the police, telling the operator: "I split up with my girlfriend and she keeps calling me. Now she's blackmailing me."
Mark Van Dongen told the emergency operator that when he ended things with Berlina Wallace two weeks earlier, she'd threatened to stab herself. She didn't go through with this threat, but instead grabbed a handful of pills and swallowed them in front of Mark. He phoned for an ambulance, and Berlina was taken to hospital.
After Mark moved out, she harassed him with phone calls and text messages. Finally, he received an email from Berliner claiming that a close friend of hers had suffered a heart attack. She accused Mark of abandoning her in her time of need and demanded that he call her immediately. Mark reluctantly made the call. Berliner was sobbing, saying she wouldn't stop crying until Mark came to see her in person.
Mark refused, asking Berliner to just leave him and his new girlfriend alone. He hung up, but Berliner kept trying to call him back. Mark eventually picked up. Berliner screamed that if he didn't do what she wanted, she'd call the police and tell them Mark had been downloading child abuse images. Exasperated, Mark called the police emergency line, telling the operator, "'Something needs to be done about it.'"
The next day, Mark went to the local police station and showed an officer the dozens of text messages and emails Berliner-Wallis had sent him. The officer believed the messages were pleading in nature rather than harassing, but she agreed to speak with Berliner regardless. Later that day, the officer visited Berliner at her flat and explained that Mark Van Dongen had lodged a complaint against her.
She urged Berliner to seek help from her GP if she was struggling with the breakup. The officer was also aware that Mark had agreed to continue paying Berliner's bills and the university tuition for her fashion degree. She recommended that Berliner contact an advice line if she was struggling financially.
The officer explained that the silent phone calls to Violet's flat could be easily traced if necessary and instructed Berliner to cease all contact with Mark and his new girlfriend. Less than three weeks later on September 21, Mark received another message from Berliner. She said she was so devastated by their breakup that she planned to quit her university course and return to South Africa. She wanted Mark to give her money to pay for the plane ticket.
Mark refused. The next day, Berliner called Mark begging him to come see her. Given Berliner's history of self-harm, Mark worried about what she might do to herself. He told Berliner he would go to her flat that evening. But first, Mark went home to Violet. He reassured her that he was committed to their relationship, but felt that he needed to do this. Mark arrived at Berliner's flat on Ladysmith Road at about 6pm.
As they prepared dinner, they chatted about their relationship. Mark reiterated that he had no intention of getting back together. An argument broke out and at around 10pm, Berlina packed a few belongings and left the flat, saying she was going to check into a hotel. Given the late hour, Mark decided to stay in the flat overnight. He undressed down to his boxer shorts and slipped into bed. Soon, he was sound asleep.
At 3am, Berliner's neighbour, Thomas, awoke to a screeching sound that he thought was foxes fighting. He grabbed a club from his golf bag, intending to break up the scuffle. But when he stepped outside, he realised it wasn't foxes. Someone was screaming the words "Help me". Thomas ran to the end of Ladysmith Road and found Mark Van Dongen wearing nothing but boxer shorts.
He was clearly in distress, but Thomas didn't understand what was happening. He thought perhaps Mark had taken LSD and was having a bad trip. It looked like he'd been to a rave. His face and upper body were covered in dark grey paint. A split second later, Thomas realised his mistake. He asked Mark what had happened. In a high-pitched distress, Mark cried out, "'Someone threw acid or something over me. Can't you see?'
Thomas immediately called emergency services. When the operator instructed Thomas to ask Mark who did this to him, Mark responded, "My ex." The operator told Thomas to take Mark to a shower and have him thoroughly wash his entire body. Other neighbors had emerged from their houses and one offered the use of his bathroom. As the group ushered the still screaming Mark back down Ladysmith Road, his distress increased.
He fearfully pointed at a flat and said, "She lives there. She lives there." The group assured him he was being taken to a different flat. When Mark stepped into the harsh lighting of the bathroom, Thomas was shocked by what he saw. He reassured Mark that an ambulance and police were on the way. Mark replied, "They need to be here. She needs to pay."
Paramedics quickly arrived to rush Mark to hospital, but all they could do was feed him a constant supply of pain-relieving gas along the way. Even so, Mark continued to scream in agony. He implored a police officer who was riding with them to check if his girlfriend Violet was okay. He then pointed to a tattoo on his lower stomach. It was the name "Belina." Mark told the officer: "She needs to go to prison for this."
Throughout the two-mile journey, Mark's distress escalated. He kept shouting about his eyes, saying that he could hardly see. He begged those in the ambulance to tell him if he still had eyelids. On arrival, he was taken to the hospital's decontamination unit. Through the haze of his failing eyesight, Mark caught a brief glimpse of his own reflection. He screamed, "Kill me now!"
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The hospital's emergency doctor determined that Mark Van Dongen had been doused with highly corrosive concentrated sulfuric acid. The acid had first covered Mark's entire face and then splashed down his body. Within seconds of the acid making contact, Mark's skin had been burned, turning to blackened, dead tissue. By the time he arrived at the hospital, the skin on his face had melted away.
His nose had completely disintegrated and his left ear and both eyelids were gone. His eyes had turned grey and they were dissolving. Mark slipped into a coma. Officers converged on Berlina Wallace's flat. Berlina was sitting in her living room, appearing completely calm and collected. In front of her was a towel with a pair of acid wash jeans on top.
Next to the jeans was a paintbrush and a glass mug with a few drops of clear liquid inside. One of the officers asked Berliner if she knew what substance had injured Mark. Berliner gestured to the items on the floor and replied, "Acid. I was using it to distress some fabric." The liquid in the mug had come from a white plastic bottle officers found on the kitchen table.
It had no label but contained a clear, odourless liquid that proved to be sulphuric acid. Berliner claimed she'd originally bought the acid to clean out some of the flat, smelly drains. When officers went into the bedroom, they saw what looked like black tar splashed all over the bed. Upon closer inspection, they realised the substance was actually the white cotton bedding melted by acid.
The blackened patches were concentrated on two pillows and a particular section of the duvet. Berlina Wallace was arrested and taken into custody. She claimed that just before 3am, she and Mark had gotten into an argument. He became violent and started to pull on her underwear. To defend herself, Berlina picked up a glass from the bedside table and threw its contents on Mark.
She assumed it was filled with water, as Mark always poured her a glass before bed. Prior to their fight, he'd told her to use it to take her medication. But when she saw Mark's skin turn black and smoke start to rise, Berlina realized it wasn't water. Mark began screaming in pain, so Berlina rushed him into the shower before going to grab some paper towels to wipe him down.
Berliner told the detectives that Mark had put the acid into the glass himself, saying: "He wanted me to burn my insides. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Mark betrayed me." Detectives asked Berliner why she didn't call for an ambulance after Mark ran out of the flat screaming in pain. Berliner said it hadn't even crossed her mind, explaining: "You know, I was just confused about loads of things. I was confused.
Detectives didn't buy Berliner-Wallis' story for a second. She said she'd purchased the acid to clean the flat drains, but these were tested and it was clear they hadn't been cleaned in quite some time. Berliner was charged with the offense of throwing a corrosive substance with the intent to burn, maim, disfigure, or disable Mark Van Dongen. With Mark in a coma and unable to assist the investigation, police turned to his family and friends to help.
According to Mark's father, Case, his son had sought medical care four years earlier for burns to his arm. Mark had told the doctor he'd dropped a hot cup of tea over himself, but that was a lie. After arguing about something insignificant, Berliner crept up behind him while he was sitting on the sofa and threw boiling water over his arm.
Case explained that Mark had always been more in love with Berlina than she was with him, but Berlina was jealous by nature. Mark had confided in his dad that Berlina sometimes hit herself in the face so she looked bruised and beaten. She'd then threaten to report Mark for domestic violence if he ever left her. To prevent him from returning to the Netherlands or checking into a hotel, she sometimes stole his passport and hid it.
A colleague of Mark's recalled that Mark had once lifted his shirt to reveal fingernail gouge marks across his back and chest. Some were fresh, while others had already begun to heal and scar. Mark was a tall, strong man, often referred to as a gentle giant. When he stood next to Berliner, he towered over her petite frame.
Yet, in the months leading up to the attack, Mark had confided in his father and friends that he was becoming more and more afraid of Berliner and what she might be capable of. Detectives obtained a warrant to access Berliner's psychological history. They discovered that in December 2013, she'd spoken with a university counselor about her anger issues.
She had admitted to being physically violent with people and to using threatening and intimidating behaviour, especially towards Mark. In a session with the university's psychiatric nurse the following year, Berliner had described feeling an adrenaline rush whenever she felt wronged by someone. She said it made her want to "destroy everything around her".
After Mark ended their relationship, Berliner told this same nurse that she wasn't coping. She felt depressed, anxious, betrayed, and angry. Berliner had deleted her internet search history, but police were able to recover it. A forensic search of her phone and computer revealed that in the days leading up to the attack, Berliner had accessed 82 sites that showed the damage sulfuric acid burns could do to a human being.
She viewed dozens of articles about victims who'd been horribly disfigured after having sulfuric acid thrown in their faces, most of which were accompanied by graphic photographs. Berliner also googled phrases such as, what happens when you swallow sulfuric acid, and, can I die from drinking sulfuric acid?
On the same day that Mark Van Dongen contacted police asking that something be done about Berliner's blackmail threat, she visited the online store Amazon. For just over 17 pounds, Berliner bought a 1-litre bottle of 98% concentration sulphuric acid. The following day, an officer visited her to request that she stop contacting Mark.
After the officer left, Berliner phoned a mental health crisis hotline and told the operator she'd swallowed a handful of pills. An ambulance was dispatched and Berliner was taken to hospital, but discharged the following day. A few days later, the bottle of sulfuric acid arrived. At some point, Berliner removed the bottle's label which featured a very clear warning that the contents caused severe burns and dye damage.
One of Berliner's online searches had led her to a case from 15 years prior in which Birmingham man Andrew Gardner had allegedly tricked his former girlfriend into drinking sulfuric acid as a last toast to mark the end of their relationship. The victim, 27-year-old Dr Karenina Lange, cried in agony for 23 minutes before Gardner called for an ambulance.
By that time, the acid had destroyed Karinina's mouth, throat, and internal organs. She died in hospital hours later, while Gardner drank beer at a local pub. He claimed that Karinina had drunk the acid herself, either mistaking it for a glass of water or intentionally to take her own life. At Gardner's murder trial, the jury wasn't convinced by the prosecution's evidence and the accused walked free.
Detectives couldn't help but note the similarities between this case and Berliner's claim that Mark had tried to trick her into drinking acid. It was possible that she'd been inspired by Andrew Gardner's defence as a means to get away with her own crime. Mark's injuries were the most extensive and extreme that surgeons had ever seen. So much so that photos of his injuries were withheld from the investigative team on account of being too disturbing.
Not long after Mark lost consciousness, he'd been taken into surgery so that all of the dead tissue on his face and body could be cut away. Healthy sections of his skin from other parts of his body were removed and grafted over the exposed areas. By the time surgeons had completed the multiple procedures, nearly half of Mark's entire body surface had been impacted.
His face was disfigured and he was blind in one eye, while doctors were only just able to save a tiny fraction of sight in the other. They had no choice but to amputate his left leg. Almost every internal function of Mark's body had been affected. His heart, liver and kidneys had all been permanently compromised, while his weakened gastrointestinal system caused him to bleed from his bowel.
The damage to Mark's throat was so severe that a tube was inserted down his throat to keep his airways open. Multiple lung infections prompted the use of a tracheostomy tube to remove the fluid from his lungs and prevent him choking to death. On a number of occasions he went into septic shock, causing his blood pressure to drop to potentially fatal levels. Doctors battled constantly to keep Mark alive.
Then, in January 2016, four months after he slipped into a coma, Mark Van Dongen woke up. Casefile will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors. Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. As Mark regained consciousness, the full extent of his injuries became clear.
The acid had so severely damaged his motor nerves that he was completely paralysed, unable to move from the neck down. It had also eaten away at his vocal cords, rendering him unable to speak a word. Yet, Mark's ability to feel remained. In some parts of his body, the acid had decimated the muscle tissue.
Because the acid was impossible for doctors to remove or neutralize completely, small traces of it continued to slowly erode Mark's bones. Meanwhile, the severe scarring all over Mark's skin caused unbearable itching. Doctors administered a constant flow of morphine, but it wasn't enough. Every second brought Mark excruciating pain.
Mark remained confined to his hospital bed in the intensive care unit where a team of 29 specialists managed his constant care. He was fed intravenously and relied on a ventilator, dialysis machine, and catheter. Frequent surgical procedures were necessary to ensure his survival. Mark's father, Case, lived and worked in Belgium.
While Mark was comatose, Case travelled to England every Friday afternoon and stayed with Mark all weekend, returning to Belgium in time for work on Monday. After Mark woke up, Case never left the hospital. He remained by his son's bedside for 23 hours a day. Case talked to Mark, hoping his voice would provide him with something to cling to. At times, Case noticed a flicker of responsiveness in Mark's face.
He tried everything he could to help provide his son with some relief. He scratched Mark's itching skin and rearranged his limbs to ease the nerve pain. Over time, Case helped Mark to relearn how to communicate. Case developed a painstaking system whereby he pointed to each letter of the alphabet written on a piece of paper. When he reached the letter Mark needed, Mark would stick out his tongue, allowing him to spell out words.
When asked who was responsible for his injuries, Mark spelled "Berliner". Eventually, doctors were able to fit a speaking valve to the end of the tube in Mark's throat. In July 2016, after five months of speech therapy, Mark regained some of his voice. Detectives took this opportunity to interview him in hospital. Mark recalled the night of the attack in vivid detail:
At around 3am, he recalled waking up in the dark to the sound of laughter in the bedroom. He heard Berliner's voice say, "If I can't have you, no one can." Something then struck Mark in the face. It burned like hell and Mark let out a terrified scream. As he scrambled out of bed, the pain moved from his face down to his arms and chest. He ran from the bedroom and out into the street, screaming.
Along with the ongoing physical pain, Mark was plagued by recurring night terrors and flashbacks of the attack. He was diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and prescribed antidepressants. Mark's biggest desire was to regain some mobility. He committed everything he had to intensive daily physiotherapy sessions.
After months and months, Mark had a major breakthrough when he managed to lightly tickle his father's hand when placed near his own. Mark understood that he'd require extensive round-the-clock care for the rest of his life and would always be in constant, agonizing pain. Regardless, he clung to a glimmer of hope that he could have something closer to a normal life, and eventually he raised the possibility of being discharged into a care home.
Case suggested they both go back to Belgium, but Mark was keen to stay in England with Violet. She remained committed to their relationship and visited him in hospital every day. On November 22 2016, after 11 months in the ICU, Mark's wishes were granted when he was transferred to a care home. Mark insisted that his father return to Belgium and resume his normal life.
Later that same day, Case received a distraught phone call from Mark. Case knew immediately that he had to get his son out of the care home. He jumped into his car and drove the eight hours from Belgium back to England, arriving at the care home in the early hours of the morning. While waiting for a more reasonable time to approach, he decided to take a quick nap in the front seat.
But Case soon heard screaming and he knew right away that those screams were coming from his son. Case ran up to the home and banged frantically on the door. Eventually, a staff member opened it. When Case entered Mark's room, he was shocked by what he found. Mark was lying on the bed, covered in his own feces. The staff had refused to go anywhere near him, too terrified of his appearance.
Case hired a private ambulance and Mark was transferred to a hospital in Belgium that same day, where he was placed in a palliative care unit. While a team of eight specialists assessed Mark's condition, Case remained by his side until the nurses became accustomed to his appearance. By the end of November, Mark was informed of his prognosis. No amount of physical therapy would ever restore movement to his body. The paralysis was permanent.
For Mark, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. He had nothing left and wished to end his life. On December 1, Mark submitted an application for voluntary euthanasia. Case could do nothing but support his son's wishes. Euthanasia was lawful under Belgian law provided strict control requirements were followed. Specially qualified doctors and psychologists assessed Mark's application.
They considered Mark to be mentally competent and found that his application had been made freely and voluntarily. They concluded that Mark was and would remain in a medically futile state of unbearable physical and psychological suffering. His application was approved. The law required Mark to wait for a period of 30 days before the euthanasia could be performed.
Case tried to convince Mark to come home with him during that time, but Mark refused, saying it would be "just another ceiling to look at." One week before the procedure was due to be carried out, Mark developed another lung infection. Another tracheostomy tube was needed to remove the fluid from his lungs. Doctors told Mark that without it, there was a high chance he would choke and die.
However, doctors also explained that if they did go ahead with the procedure, there was a 96% chance it would further damage his vocal cords and he could lose his voice completely. Mark's only wish was to be able to talk to his dad until the very last second. He declined the treatment. By January 2 2017, 15 and a half months had passed since the acid attack.
At 7:15pm that day, Mark shared a final drink with his father and said goodbye. Doctors administered the lethal injection into Mark's heart. After Mark's death, Case told Channel 4 News: "That boy went through hell and back. So much pain, so much itching, enough to drive anyone insane, completely paralyzed. Getting a bullet would be better in comparison.
This has been nothing short of torture. It defies belief. When news of Mark's death reached England, Berlina Wallace was immediately charged with another crime: murder. Her trial commenced nine months later in November 2017. Berlina's defense team contested the murder charge, claiming there was no case to answer because Mark Van Dongen had chosen to end his own life.
The judge decided that the euthanasia was a voluntary act that broke the link between the acid attack committed by Berliner and Mark's death. For a murder charge to apply, an unbroken link was legally required. The judge therefore ordered that the charge of murder be withdrawn. The prosecution immediately appealed and nine days later, the appeal court handed down its ruling.
Even though Mark's decision to die was voluntary for the purpose of the Belgian law on euthanasia, it did not automatically mean his death was voluntary in the context of how and why he came to that decision. The appeal court ruled that the link had not been severed from a legal standpoint. Whether it had been factually severed was a question to be put to a jury.
In May 2018, Berlina Wallace stood trial on both charges, throwing the acid with intent as well as murder. She testified in her own defense, sticking to the story that Mark himself had filled the glass with acid and tried to trick her into drinking it before launching an assault. Berlina told the jury that she threw what she thought was water over Mark just to make him stop. Through tears, she insisted that she hadn't meant to hurt him.
Berliner claimed she'd never even read the articles about other acid attacks that were found in her online search history. She said she only looked at the pictures of the victims out of curiosity, labelling the timing as "just a coincidence", "just bad luck". The jury heard a recording of Mark's 2016 hospital interview with detectives, in which Mark detailed Berliner-Wallace's controlling and violent behaviour during their five-year relationship.
He described waking up on the night of the attack to Berliner laughing and repeated what she'd said just before throwing the acid on his face. "If I can't have you, no one can." The judge instructed the jury to consider a series of questions to reach their verdicts. On the first count, the jury had to decide whether Berliner's act of throwing acid over Mark was deliberate. If so, was it done with the intention of causing Mark serious bodily harm?
The jury's decision here was unanimous: Berlina Wallace was guilty. However, for Berlina to be guilty of the second count, murder, the jury had two more questions to consider. The first was whether the acid attack caused Mark's death. While the attack didn't need to be the only cause, the jury had to be satisfied that it was a significant cause.
If their answer was no, or if they were unsure, they were required to acquit Berliner. But if they had no doubt that Berliner's attack was a significant cause of Mark's death, there was one final question to consider. Could Berliner have predicted that Mark might choose to end his own life as a result of his injuries? If the answer was yes, then Berliner would be guilty.
After 15 and a half hours of deliberation, the jury reached their verdict. They found Berliner-Wallis not guilty of murder. Addressing Berliner directly, the judge called her a manipulative and controlling woman who lied without compunction or conscience in an attempt to avoid culpability. She stated, "...your intention was to burn, disfigure, and disable Mark Van Dongen so that he would not be attractive to any other woman."
"You ignored Mark's cries of pain and chose not to telephone the emergency services when you would have known that Mark urgently required medical help. You caused Mark catastrophic and life-changing injuries and 15 months of intense physical and psychological suffering. It was premeditated and sadistic. It was an act of pure evil."
For the acid attack on Mark Van Dongen, Berlina Wallace was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 12 years starting from the date of her arrest. Berlina will be eligible for parole in 2027, although the judge stressed that Berlina would only ever be released if she no longer posed a danger to the public. The attack on Mark in 2015 was just one of hundreds of acid attacks across the United Kingdom that year.
In response to the alarming rise of acid being used as a weapon, the government introduced new restrictions to make it more difficult to obtain. From July 2018, a special license was required to purchase sulfuric acid in any concentration above 15%. This regulation would have prevented Berliner Wallace from attacking Mark Van Dongen with such a devastating substance.
The UK's then Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability told the press: "This tragic case illustrates the devastating consequences of acid attacks and we are determined to end these appalling acts of violence." Berliner's life sentence brought little relief to Mark's father, who had described his son as a "gentleman" and "everyone's friend". Case ultimately felt that Mark was too good for this world.
Addressing reporters after the trial, Case was shaking as he said, "'Mark was so brave when confronted with the hellish pain and disabilities inflicted upon him, but eventually it all became too much for him to bear. The court process has been a difficult and emotional experience. I am very disappointed in the outcome of this trial. There are only losers in this case. I hope that Mark can now rest in peace."
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