A woman unwittingly caught up in a dispute between two other people died after being splashed with acid, a court has heard.



Joanne Rand was sitting on a bench and was about to have a cigarette when she was struck from head to toe with the high-strength sulphuric acid last June.

She screamed in pain and ran to a nearby KFC to splash water over herself after the incident in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, Reading crown court heard.

She was treated in hospital and released briefly after sustaining up to 5% burns.

Rand died on 14 June, 11 days after the incident, from multi-organ failure after developing septicaemia caused by the burns, the court heard.

Xeneral Webster, 19, denies her murder.

Alison Hunter QC, prosecuting, told the jury the defendant had been in a dispute in Frogmoor with another male, Saqib Hussain, from whom he was trying to wrest a bicycle.

Hunter said CCTV footage showed Webster reaching into his satchel for a bottle. “What he produced next is an open-topped bottle of acid and he makes to throw it towards Mr Hussain. And he said to Mr Hussain, ‘This is acid’,” she said.

“At this moment Mr Hussain, panicking, knocks the acid out of Mr Webster’s hand.”

The bottle rolled and hit Rand, who was sitting a few metres away, Hunter said. She “instantly noticed that her hair was wet and that her face had begun to burn”, the prosecutor added.

Webster was captured on CCTV putting on a balaclava before cycling back to the bench where Rand had been sitting to retrieve the bottle, the court heard.

He later discarded it and the bicycle before getting the train home to London, the jury was told.

Hunter said: “That Joanne Rand was not Mr Webster’s intended victim on 3 June 2017 makes no difference in law to his culpability for her death, because it arises in these circumstances where he was intending to unlawfully kill or at least cause GBH to another.”

She said Webster knew the consequences of having acid in a public place, having been the victim of an acid attack himself.

The defendant admitted being involved in an altercation; he said it occurred because he had been sold spice instead of cannabis, the court heard. He denied possessing the bottle of acid.

Webster, of Westway in west London, denies six charges dated between April and June 2017. He faces a murder charge and an alternative count of manslaughter, possession of a bottle of acid, possession of a bottle of ammonia, attempted GBH with intent, and robbery of a bicycle.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.