Acid Attacks
Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FOI/25/008961/N
Version Date: 10/11/2025
The Performance & Analysis Department has provided the following information:
Data Limitations
No crimes/Cancelled Crimes included
Restricted Crimes Excluded
An offence may have more than one suspect or offender. An individual may also become a victim, suspect or offender more than once. Duplicates have been removed on the nominal ID and Calendar year therefore an individual will only appear in the data once per calendar year.
Arrest data is dependent on there being a crime reference linked to a custody reference.
Occurrence People Links data is dependent on the recording of an individual being linked to a crime, there may be a small number of crimes where no individual is linked, and these will not appear in the data.
Offence data was migrated from Unifi to Niche on 14/11/2022, data before and after this date are in different formats are not easily comparable.
Because of the use of the principal crime rule when recording crimes, the recorded Outcome may be for a different crime type.
For each calendar year from 2019, including 2025 to date:
1) The number of offences that were categorised as an acid attack or corrosive fluid attack against the person as per the Home Office/NPCC definition here:
"All notifiable violence against the person and robbery, involving the throwing, spraying or pouring of acid or a similarly corrosive substance onto the body of another with the intention to disfigure, torture, kill or otherwise incapacitate for criminal purposes."
| Q1 and Q6 (Arrests) Between 01/01/2019 - 16/10/2025* in Devon and Cornwall. | ||||
| Arrest Linked | Year | Robbery | Violence Against the Person | Total |
| No | 2019 | 0 | 12 | 12 |
| 2020 | 1 | 14 | 15 | |
| 2021 | 0 | 8 | 8 | |
| 2022 | 0 | 13 | 13 | |
| 2023 | 0 | 5 | 5 | |
| 2024 | 0 | 19 | 19 | |
| 2025* | 2 | 9 | 11 | |
| No Total | 3 | 80 | 83 | |
| Yes | 2019 | 0 | 13 | 13 |
| 2020 | 0 | 5 | 5 | |
| 2021 | 0 | 8 | 8 | |
| 2022 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 2023 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 0 | 5 | 5 | |
| 2025* | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| Yes Total | 1 | 36 | 37 | |
| Total | 4 | 116 | 120 | |
2) For each calendar year, the gender of victim(s) of attacks as specified in question one - ie how many of the victims were male, female or otherwise specified.
| Q2 and Q4 Between 01/01/2019 - 16/10/2025* in Devon and Cornwall. The gender and Self Ethnicity of victim(s) | |||||
| Year | Victim Self Ethnicity | Female | Male | Unknown | Total |
| 2019 | Not stated | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| OTHER - ANY OTHER ETHNIC GROUP | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| WHITE - BRITISH | 11 | 8 | 0 | 19 | |
| 2019 | 15 | 9 | 0 | 24 | |
| 2020 | ASIAN - ANY OTHER ASIAN BACKGROUND | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Not stated | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| WHITE - BRITISH | 10 | 5 | 0 | 15 | |
| 2020 | 11 | 8 | 0 | 19 | |
| 2021 | Any other Asian background | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Any other mixed | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Not stated | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| White British | 6 | 6 | 0 | 12 | |
| 2021 | 7 | 9 | 0 | 16 | |
| 2022 | Any other white background | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Not stated | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |
| White British | 6 | 3 | 0 | 9 | |
| 2022 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 15 | |
| 2023 | Not stated | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| White British | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 | |
| 2023 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | |
| 2024 | Any other white background | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Not stated | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 | |
| White British | 6 | 11 | 0 | 17 | |
| 2024 | 10 | 13 | 0 | 23 | |
| 2025* | Not stated | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| White British | 4 | 5 | 0 | 9 | |
| 2025 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 11 | |
| Total | 59 | 54 | 1 | 114 | |
3) For each calendar year, the gender of attacker(s)/suspect(s) (where known) in attacks as specified in question one.
| Q3 and Q5 Between 01/01/2019 - 16/10/2025* in Devon and Cornwall. The gender and self-ethnicity of suspects and offenders. | ||||
| YEAR | Suspects and Offenders Self Ethnicity | Female | Male | Total |
| 2019 | ASIAN - ANY OTHER ASIAN BACKGROUND | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Not stated | 0 | 3 | 3 | |
| WHITE - BRITISH | 6 | 8 | 14 | |
| 2019 Total | 6 | 12 | 18 | |
| 2020 | Not stated | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| WHITE - BRITISH | 2 | 10 | 12 | |
| 2020 Total | 3 | 12 | 15 | |
| 2021 | Not stated | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| White British | 5 | 8 | 13 | |
| 2021 Total | 5 | 9 | 14 | |
| 2022 | White British | 5 | 4 | 9 |
| 2022 Total | 5 | 4 | 9 | |
| 2023 | White British | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 2023 Total | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| 2024 | Any other white background | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Not stated | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| White British | 6 | 14 | 20 | |
| 2024 Total | 7 | 16 | 23 | |
| 2025* | Any other Black background | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Any other white background | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Black African including Black British | 0 | 6 | 6 | |
| Not stated | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| White British | 5 | 6 | 11 | |
| 2025 Total | 6 | 14 | 20 | |
| Total | 34 | 69 | 103 | |
4) For each calendar year, the ethnicity of victim(s) of attacks as specified in question one.
Please see the table under question 2.
5) For each calendar year, the ethnicity of attacker(s)/suspect(s) (where known) in attacks as specified in question one.
Please see the table under question 3.
6) The outcome of offences specified in question one - ie the number of arrests and convictions.
See the table under question 1 for arrest data.
Please note that Devon & Cornwall Police do not hold conviction data. This information is held by the courts.