Acid attack accused explains phone calls and text messages
A man accused of being involved in orchestrating a doorstep acid attack on a young woman has dismissed organising it through a series of text messages and phone calls with two other defendants.
Nursing home carer Vikki Horsman, aged 20, suffered eight per cent burns over her body after she was doused with sulphuric acid in a horrific assault on the doorstep of a house in Tividale on April 15, this year.
Shannon Heaps had been visited by co-accused Steven Holmes and Mohammed Rafiq at his home in Queens Avenue, Tividale, on the same day, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard yesterday.
Being cross-examined by prosecutor Anthony Warner yesterday, Heaps said he and Holmes had sent text messages to each other the day before the acid attack but that the messages had been about 'what he's been up to, meeting girls and stupid things'.
The court heard the pair had been friends and Holmes had only recently been released from prison.
Heaps said Holmes had also said he would come to see him the next day and Heaps spoke to him on the phone on the evening of April 14.
He said: "He confirmed it when I phoned him."
The jury was told that in the days leading up to the attack there had also been a number of phone calls and text messages between Heaps and Rafiq.
Heaps said many of them had been in relation a man who had been in hospital at the time to have a lung operation.
He told the jury he had also asked to borrow garden shears from Rafiq, who had brought them when he visited Heaps on April 15.
The court heard earlier this week how Holmes threw acid on Ms Horsman's face and upper body on the doorstep of a house in MacDonald Close, Tividale.
Holmes previously told the jury that a man he had met three days before the April 15 attack paid him £50 to 'teach her a lesson'.
He has admitted causing grievous bodily harm, but denies he intended to injure the victim, claiming he thought he was dousing her in engine oil in order to 'dirty her up'.
The prosecution alleges Holmes carried out the attack under instructions from Ms Horsman's former partner, Rafiq.
Holmes, aged 25, of Allan Close, Smethwick; Rafiq, 80, of Cheshire Road, Smethwick and Heaps, 22, of Queens Avenue, Tividale, all deny one count of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent.
Rafiq denies a further charge of perverting the course of justice.
The trial continues.
