Future lawyer daughter of top QC in acid attack shame

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By Thomas Connelly on

Emily Bowen’s reported place to study law at Aberdeen Uni put on hold as she’s sent to prison

Knox Academy and One Shot drain cleaner

A young aspiring lawyer who carried out an “utterly wicked” acid attack on a school love rival has been jailed.

Emily Bowen, 18, was handed a 21-month custodial sentence after she admitted pouring One Shot drain cleaner, containing 91% sulphuric acid, into the viola case of a fellow student. Molly Young — who attended Knox Academy in Scotland along with Bowen — suffered burns and scarring to her legs when she removed the acid-filled instrument case from a shelf.

Bowen was said to have carried out the attack back in September 2016 after discovering that Young had started dating her ex-boyfriend. She admitted to recklessly and culpably pouring sulphuric acid into the viola case at a court appearance in June.

According to the Mail Online, Bowen, daughter of civil and commercial law specialist Andrew Bowen QC, was due to study law at Aberdeen University. An unnamed family friend said:

Emily had been accepted to Aberdeen University to take a law degree. She is a very intelligent girl and she would have sailed through any degree she wanted to do. She has always looked up to her father Andy and I think it was a dream of hers to follow him in his profession.

Citing data protection laws, a spokesperson for Aberdeen University was unable to disclose to Legal Cheek whether Bowen had secured a place at their law school. Bowen’s father is listed as a member of Edinburgh’s Terra Firma Chambers and of Leeds/Newcastle set New Park Court Chambers.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard last week how the wannabe lawyer had researched acid attacks in the period leading to the incident, and had penned a letter purporting to be from the victim in a bid to justify her actions. The letter was addressed to Bowen and demanded that she end her own life.

Jailing Bowen for the “utterly wicked” attack, Sheriff Michael O’Grady said:

You have left a young woman to suffer a terrifying ordeal and she will be physically and mentally scarred for the rest of her life.

The awful attack is reminiscent of the criminal law classic of DPP v K, a regular on LLB syllabuses.

Students will recall the 90s case involved a 15-year-old boy who took some acid from a science lesson and placed it into the hand drier of the school toilet. With the nozzle left pointing upwards, another pupil came into the toilet to use the hand drier and inadvertently squirted acid onto his own face. The court went on to rule that the application of force in a case of battery need not be directly applied.

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