Halstead boiling water burglary duo jailed for life Published duration 3 April 2017

image copyright Kent Police image caption Daniel Wallace (left) and Kacey Adams pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing

Two "barbaric" men have each been given life sentences for beating a couple and dousing them with boiling water during a burglary at their home.

John and Janis Buswell were tied up with cable ties and tortured during a two-hour ordeal in Halstead, Kent.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard they were also threatened with a knife and a hot iron last April.

Daniel Wallace, 33, and Kacey Adams, 34, were told they would serve a minimum of seven-and-a-half-years each.

'Permanently disfigured'

In a victim impact statement, Mrs Buswell said: "What these criminals did to me was barbaric."

"This will affect me every day for the rest of my life. The injuries I have suffered have left me permanently disfigured.

"I now have no confidence in myself and feel worthless and can't even do the simplest of things," she said.

Her husband said: "They have destroyed my life and wife's too.

"I'm physically and mentally scarred, not just from the attack but from seeing her being tortured and then in a coma fighting for her life."

image copyright Ferrari Press Agency image caption John and Janis Buswell were tied up and had boiling water from a kettle poured over them

Mr Buswell, 66, had been watching TV and his wife, 64, was knitting clothes for her expected great-grandchild when the intruders smashed their way into their bungalow in London Road at about 21:00 BST, demanding the codes to their safes.

Gouge eye out

The court heard how Wallace, of no fixed address, and Adams, formerly of Covert Road, Hainault, Ilford, London, poured two kettles of boiling water over Mrs Buswell and threatened to sever her fingers and gouge one of her eyes out.

They also poured one kettle of boiling water over Mr Buswell, punched him repeatedly in the face and threatened to cut his ears off.

Another defendant, Drew Morris, 27, of Downhall Road, Rayleigh, Essex, was jailed for four years and three months after admitting burglary.

He admitted to being the getaway driver but said he did not enter the house or know what was going to happen.

image copyright Kent Police image caption Drew Morris admitted to being the getaway driver but said he did not enter the house

Sentencing, Judge Charles Gratwicke said Adams and Wallace had used "gratuitous violence for no reason at all".

"Nobody... could feel anything but revulsion, sickness and a deep anger," he said, adding they had "ruined the lives" of both pensioners.

image caption John and Janis Buswell no longer live in the house where they were attacked

Adams and Wallace, together with another man who has never been caught, fled with about £50,000 and jetted off to Dubai.

They were arrested on a return flight in May 2016, and their luggage was found to contain more than £18,000 of luxury goods.

The pair were each handed three life sentences.

Two were for aggravated burglary and causing grievous bodily harm with intent - which they admitted at an earlier hearing at Maidstone Crown Court.

The third, with a minimum jail term of 12-and-a-half years for conspiracy to murder, was related to a drive-by shooting in Stanford-Le-Hope, Essex, in May 2016 which their victim survived.

All sentences will be served concurrently.

Related Topics Stanford-le-Hope

Halstead