A man who blinded an acquaintance with a corrosive liquid at an eco-village has been jailed for 15 years.
Jivan Dean, 24, attacked Raven Riley, 21, with sodium hydroxide – an alkaline also known as caustic soda – in a jealous rage after wrongly believing he had contacted his girlfriend.
Dean was seen heating a liquid in a pan on a hob before hurling it in the face of Riley while he was sitting in a chair at a property in Tipi Valley in Carmarthenshire.
Tipi Valley is an off-grid eco-community founded in 1976 near the village of Llandeilo. Among its residents is Swampy – real name Daniel Hooper, 51 – who came to prominence in the 1990s for protests including spending a week in a tunnel in an attempt to prevent work on the A30 in Fairmile, Devon.
Most recently, Hooper has been part of groups camping in treehouses and tunnels as part of Stop HS2 protests including in Euston Square Gardens, London, while also raising three children with his wife, Clare, at Tipi Valley.
The community-bought fields stretch over 81 hectares (200 acres) and many of the residents live in tipis, yurts and turf-roofed huts. Some of the adults work as labourers and teachers in nearby villages, while others stay in the valley full-time and live off-grid.
The assault on 14 August left Riley blinded in both eyes and with burns to his head, face, neck and chest.
People in the community came to his aid, noting his white, opaque eyes, and he was transferred to hospital for treatment.
Riley can now see only blurred shapes and requires help with everyday tasks. Doctors are unable to say whether his eyesight will return.
Passing sentence at Swansea crown court, Judge Geraint Walters said Dean was dangerous and passed an extended sentence of 15 years in custody with a further four years on licence.
“The wickedness of this goes beyond most reasoning,” the judge said. “It follows from everything that I’ve heard about you and read about you that you have not shown any remorse whatsoever from what you did, none at all.
“This case involves the cold, calculated, deliberate act of unimaginable cruelty which was intended to maim your victim for life. Short of killing your victim, you couldn’t have done him any more harm.”
Dean was also given a lifetime restraining order.
In a victim impact statement, Riley said his life was in “limbo” and he had to use eye drops every three hours.
“I am now reliant on others and was completely independent before the incident. It upsets me as my independence has been cruelly taken away from me in such a horrific way,” he said.
“Because of Jivan, my life will no longer be the same. He can still see, I cannot. His actions were reckless, and they have turned my life upside down.”
Dean, of no fixed address, had previously pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent and causing a dangerous or noxious thing to be received with intent to burn.
