A JEALOUS ex-boyfriend who nearly blinded a firefighter by spraying ammonia in his face was jailed for three years on Monday.

Snaresbrook Crown Court heard that Mark Homer, 45, waged a terror campaign against his ex-girlfriend Maria Dunhill and her new lover, fireman Mark Edwards, before going over to Miss Dunhill's flat and dousing her boyfriend in caustic ammonia.

Over three months Homer, from Westview Drive, Woodford Green, made a serious of threatening telephone calls to the couple telling his former girlfriend: "I'll give him a fire to put out and he will be in it."

And three days before Christmas, last year, Homer appeared at Miss Dunhill's Beckton flat, where she lives with their young son.

When the fireman answered the door Homer whipped out a white nozzled container in what was described as a "gun-slinging motion" and squirted the corrosive liquid right in Mr Edwards' face.

Giving evidence Mr Edwards said: "The pain was unbelievable. It was the feeling of acid being thrown in your face. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't see. My right eye was in the most severe pain."

The police were called and luckily a quick thinking officer took Mr Edwards upstairs and sprayed the shower in the fire fighter's face to get rid of the burning ammonia before his girlfriend drove him to hospital where he received emergency treatment to save his sight.

The cornea of Mr Edward's right eye had been damaged, but luckily there was no permanent injury.

A jury found Homer guilty of wilfully and maliciously causing grievous bodily harm but found him not guilty of a more serious offence of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

July 11, 2002 10:30