A driver attacked by the gang who carjacked boxing champion Michael Watson told of his terror as he was sprayed in the face with ammonia.
Bradley Robinson suffered agonising pain in the assault at a petrol station forecourt and said he was physically and emotionally scarred for life. He gave a victim impact statement as the men who attacked him and Watson were found guilty at Snaresbrook crown court.
Robinson, then 19, was in Loughton, Essex when a man asked him for a cigarette lighter then sprayed him. “My face and neck went numb, my vision blurred, I was panic-stricken. I was dragged from my car and left trying to feel my way around while they drove off,” he said.
The ammonia splashed on the legs of a girl, 16, in his Audi. She leaped out as the gang fled. “It took 15 to 20 minutes before I could feel my face and eyes burning,” said Mr Robinson.
Yesterday Anselm Legemah, 23, Simon Luck, 29, and Paul Samuels, 31, were found guilty of the attack on February 4 last year.
Two weeks later, Luck and Samuels targeted Watson, 53, and carer Lennard Ballack in Chingford. Mr Ballack, 54, was sprayed with ammonia and forced from the car, but Watson, who is disabled after suffering a brain injury in a 1991 bout with Chris Eubank, was trapped in his seatbelt. He was sprayed then dragged 150 yards as Samuels tried to drive off.
Samuels and Luck, of Manor Park, were found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery and two of applying a corrosive fluid with intent.
Legemah, of Plaistow, was convicted of one count of each. The defendants were remanded in custody until a sentencing hearing next Friday. The judge told them they face long jail terms.
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