A father who was upset after his wife filed for a divorce and wanted to ruin her custody bid by making her look like an unfit mother allegedly organized an acid attack on his three-year-old son. He reportedly asked an imam whether it was appropriate per the tenets of Islam to murder his wife for causing him shame by asking for a divorce.

In a bid to "manufacture" evidence against his wife to show she was "unable to properly care for them", the 40-year-old taxi driver allegedly plotted the crime with six other accomplices, Daily Mail reports.

On July 21, 2018, the youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sprayed with sulphuric acid while he was shopping for a birthday present in a Home Bargains store in Worcester and sustained severe burns to his face and arm.

This led to his father being charged with conspiring to unlawfully or maliciously cast or throw sulphuric acid on or at the boy between June 1 and July 22, with intent to burn, maim, disfigure, or disable the minor, or do some grievous bodily harm to him, according to the outlet. The Islamic religious leader he consulted advised him to pray when he asked for permission to kill his wife for shaming him with a divorce.

The perpetrator, who also cannot be named for "legal reasons", conspired with five other men and one woman in the malicious attack, namely Adam Cech, 27, and Jan Dudi, 25, both of Birmingham; Norbert Pulko, 22, of London; Martina Badiova, 22, of Handsworth, Birmingham; Saied Hussini, 41, of London; and Jabar Paktia, 41, of Wolverhampton — all of whom have denied said allegations.

Addressing the Worcester Crown Court, Jonathan Rees QC, prosecuting, said, "This case concerns a cowardly attack on a defenseless three-year-old boy in which he was squirted with a solution of sulphuric acid. At the time of the attack, the little boy was with his mother and his older brother and sister.

The family had been shopping for a birthday present. As a result of the attack, the little boy suffered acid burns to his left forearm and his forehead which were treated in hospital. Thankfully, due to the quick actions of a member of staff, the seriousness of the injuries was limited and, although it is too early to say whether or not there will be any residual marking, the victim has made a good recovery."

As a result of the attack, the little boy suffered acid burns to his left forearm and his forehead which were treated in hospital (iStock)

The boy was shopping with his mother and siblings at the time of the alleged attack, which was carried out by Cech, the court heard.

"It was over almost in the blink of the eye and may have gone undetected were it not for the fact it was captured on the shop's internal CCTV system," he said. "At the time he carried out the attack, Cech was accompanied by two other defendants in the store, namely the third and fourth defendants, Jan Dudi and Norbert Pulko."

However, this was not the first time the young boy had been targeted, Rees said. On July 13, another attack against him took place involving Badiova, Hussini, and Pulko.

Rees told the jury: "The prosecution alleges that the driving force behind these events was, in fact, the father of the child. In April 2016, his wife had left him taking their three children with her and in due course, she issued divorced proceedings.

"The prosecution says that it will become apparent the first defendant took the separation badly. By the time of the attack, he had been granted fortnightly supervised contact with his children. However, he was seeking greater access and was pursuing a court application to this effect. This application was being opposed by his wife.

"We say the evidence suggests that in an effort to ensure his application was successful he was willing to manufacture evidence of injuries to his children in an attempt to show that his wife was unable properly to care for them, in other words, she was an unfit mother. Although the prosecution are not required to prove motive against any of the defendants, we suggest that his desire to show his wife in a bad light may have provided at least some of the motivation for him organizing this attack on his son.

"It would enable him to say to the court that the child had sustained nasty injuries while he was in the care of his mother. Whilst we say the attack had its roots in his unhappy domestic situation, we allege that he enlisted others to help him carry out his plan."

While the couple was married in 2007, the wife broke up with him in 2012. After the father's attempts to bring her back home failed, he accused her of "humiliating him" and threatened to murder her and their children in an Islamic country.

The possessive husband reportedly began tracking and spying on his wife and children and spent over £1,200 ($1,500) on private investigators, who placed a GPS device on her vehicle during their surveillance.

"It seems that he could not accept the separation and pleaded with members of her family, including her brother, to get the mother to go back to him," Rees said. "In March 2018, the father had hired a private investigator called Matthew Dalton to carry out surveillance on his wife and children. At one of the hearings before the Family Court, the mother's solicitors served divorce papers personally on her husband.

"They had been sent to him through the post over a year earlier but he had not responded. The judge adjourned the hearing in order to establish the facts surrounding the previous domestic history of the family. Of course, the attack on boy occurred before that fact-finding hearing could take place."

The perpetrator, who also cannot be named for "legal reasons", conspired with five other men and one woman in the malicious attack (Twitter)

According to Rees, the gang had run a series of "reconnaissance missions" before the acid attack. In fact, a week before the incident, they planned to target the boy outside his primary school but canceled at the last moment.

Rees added: "Just over a week earlier, on Friday, July 13, Norbert Pulko, together with the 6th and 7th defendants, Saied Hussini and Martina Badiova had spent hours loitering near the primary school attended that day by the boy and his older siblings.

"When their mother collected the children at the end of the school day, Pulko followed the group as they made their way towards the family car. He had an object of some sort in his hands, but for reasons that may be to do with the fact that other people were very close by, no attack was carried out at that point."

The trial continues.