Xeneral Imiuru, Britain's first acid attack killer, 'doused mum just weeks before fatal attack on nurse Jo Rand in High Wycombe'

Xeneral Imiuru - also known as Xeneral Webster - hurled the noxious substance in a Vue cinema in west London on March 8, 2017, a jury heard, where it landed on Neetta Vaidhya, melting her sock and burning her feet.

She thought she had been hit by hot coffee when she first felt a burning sensation in her hands and feet until she saw her blue sock melting before her eyes and realised the substance was something else.

Imiuru had been intending to hurl his acid at another man during an argument - in circumstances similar to those just under three months later which led to him becoming Britain’s first convicted acid killer.

Xeneral Imiuru has also been the victim of an acid attack

In the afternoon on June 3, 2017, Imiuru, then aged 19, had become involved in a tussle with another man which resulted in Joanne Rand, a Marlow carer for people with dementia who was sitting on a bench after visiting her daughter’s grave, being doused in the face and body with high-strength acid.

Ms Rand, 47, had died of multiple organ failure 11 days after the horrific attack after contracting septicaemia due to the burns.

Imiuru admitted manslaughter in relation to the mother-of-three in Frogmoor, High Wycombe, and was jailed for 17 years.

It emerged that Imiuru, now aged 20, could have been brought to justice following the earlier attack after he appeared in Oxford Crown Court to admit causing prison guard Paul Flower grievous bodily harm at a jail in Aylesbury, throwing urine at Bullingdon prison officer Yvette Wright and assault by beating of colleague Zena Rose by spitting at her.

Imiuru is to be sentenced for all the crimes at a later date.

Ms Rand's injuries

Ms Rand's family said after he was jailed previously at Reading Crown Court: "Had this acid attack in March 2017 been investigated properly at the time, Webster the alleged perpetrator, would have been dealt with and may not have been free to carry out the horrific attack in June 3, 2017 on Jo and she might still be with us."

Prosecuting in Imiuru’s latest acid case, Lesley Bates told the jury at Oxford Crown Court: "Neetta Vaidhya was the unintended victim of an acid incident where the acid was thrown from one person towards another, intending to hit that other but it hit her by mistake - she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Imiuru had denied the acid attack, although he refused to leave his prison cell to attend the first day of his trial before Judge Peter Ross at Oxford Crown Court.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct was investigating whether a police officer investigating the Vue cinema acid attack should have released CCTV at an earlier stage which could have helped bring Imiuru to justice before he the fatal acid incident which killed Ms Rand in High Wycombe.