UPDATED: 2019/03/06 8:00PM

A UK man has been found guilty and sentenced to 16 years behind bars for plotting an acid attack on his own child during a custody battle with his ex-wife. He was convinced unanimously by a jury after a six-week trial. The jury convicted him and five co-conspirators of plotting to spray sulfuric acid on the three-year-old’s face, intending to “burn, maim or disfigure” his own son.

The attack was a bid to gain increased custody by making the child’s mother seem incapable of providing adequate care. The man, 40, is originally from Afghanistan, and his wife left him in 2016, taking their three children with her.

His ex-wife was out with the children shopping for a birthday present in the English city of Worcester, when the child was sprayed with sulfuric acid on his face and arms. The boy has since made a “good recovery” and is still in the care of his mother.

The five convicted co-conspirators were named as Adam Cech, Jan Dudi, Norbert Pulko, Jabar Paktia and Saied Hussini. Cech, Dudi, Pulko and Paktia were each sentenced to 12 years in prison. Hussini was sentenced to 14 years. Martina Badiova was also a defendant in the case, but was found not guilty.

The mother of the child told police, “I hope this case and sentence makes people consider the consequences before even thinking about acting is such a monstrous way, it is a family’s life that has been ruined and a young boy that has been scarred for life.”