Swathed in bandages and barely moving, the father of two recounted the night of the attack to officers
Danny Cahalane (Image: Devon and Cornwall Police)
A jury watched the horrifically burned victim of an alleged acid attack give evidence to police from his hospital bed before he later died of his injuries.
The trial of ten people – seven men from London and three women from Plymouth – continued today (January 28) at Winchester Crown Court. Seven of the ten are accused of 38-year-old Danny Cahalane’s murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.
The jury was previously told how Danny died at a Bristol hospital on May 3, 2025, where he had remained following an attack at his home in Lipson Road, in the early hours of February 21, 2025, which left him with severe chemical burns.
The jury was previously told that Danny was a “drug dealer in Plymouth who owed a large amount of money to another drug dealer further up the chain of command” – suggesting it was around £120,000 in total.
Danny admitted to police he had also gambled with the profits, including money which was meant to have gone to a drugs boss, named in court as Ryan Kennedy, also known as ‘Frost’. The court has previously been told that Frost, from London, is believed to currently be in Dubai.
The jury heard from Det Sgt Martin Sutcliffe, a member of Devon and Cornwall Police’s Major Crime Investigation Team, who acted as an interview advisor when police attended Southmead hospital in Bristol to take a video statement from Danny on February 25, 2025, just a few days after the attack. Det Sgt Sutcliffe explained that police attended the hospital at Danny’s request.
He explained that Danny was in the Intensive Care Unit at that time and that his mother Vivien and his step father Tony Bleech were also at the hospital visiting him. He said that discussions were held with Danny’s family members as well as senior medical staff before setting up their equipment, donning PPE and making the recording.
The jury were told that at the time Danny was on strong painkillers due to his injuries, including ketamine, and the recording had to frequently be stopped while ICU nurses and doctors attended to their patient.
He said Danny mentioned that he was in debt to Frost, which Det Sgt Sutcliff confirmed was understood as a drugs debt. He told the officer that they initially had had a good relationship, but that it had deteriorated over time. He admitted that he had gambled away some of the drugs money and did not have enough to pay it back.
Det Sgt Sutcliffe said Danny had claimed that Frost had suggested he take suitcases of cannabis from Thailand to the UK, to help pay off the debt, but that Danny had refused.
The court heard that Danny had described Frost as being white, “tall, 6ft 5ins” and of “slim build” with a goatee beard.
Asked by prosecutor Joanna Martin KC whether Danny mentioned the sort of level of drugs Frost was involved with, the officer replied that Danny “talked in terms of ‘crazy’ amounts – very large amounts of drugs”.
The jury also heard that Danny had been with Frost in a car in Plymouth in February 2024 when they were stopped by police. The court heard that Frost had been driving his mother’s mobility car at the time.
The court also heard that Danny explained how Frost was using an encrypted mobile phone that would show a Czech telephone number, despite him not being in that country, and that he would use this phone to communicate with Danny by WhatsApp. Danny explained that Frost was careful and had a Snapchat account under the name of “_frost” with a snowflake emoji.
Asked about his ex-wife Paris Wilson, Danny told the officers she was someone who was “money driven” and had, in the weeks prior to the attack, unusually changed plans over a previously agreed arrangement.
Danny told the officer he believed Paris had been in contact with Frost and said she had also asked about his then girlfriend, Michaela.
The jury heard that Danny told police he had received a message from Paris about him getting acid thrown in his face. Danny had also said Paris was angry that he had moved back into the house in Lipson Road which they had previously shared. He also said he believed the man who targeted him outside Paris’s home in The Quay, Oreston, was the same man who had attacked him in his home, which the jury has previously been told was Kelvin Asante.
The Quay, Oreston(Image: Google Street View)
The jury were then shown the video interview, involving Det Con Darren Webb, part of the investigation team and Danny. He appeared on the screen in court, slightly propped up in his hospital bed, swathed in bandages over his arms, chest and neck. Throughout the interview his head was slightly turned away from the camera, but it was clear that he was connected to a number of machines by cables and tubes, including one up each nostril.
Much of his face appeared to be very discoloured, mainly ash grey and black, with the areas around his constantly closed eyes a deeper black, while his cheeks a dark grey colour. Areas of pink could be seen by his neck. He often struggled to speak and would occasionally take sips from a water bottle in his right hand.
Danny told the officers he had “not lived the best of lives – as in on the side of the law”, and revealed he had had split up with his partner, had “basically lost everything”, was “at rock bottom” and had tried to take his own life on September 13, 2024.
However, he said he had an “epiphany” in early 2025 regarding those who meant the most to him. He also said his mother had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and had been fighting it.
The jury later heard that his mother had died on May 4, 2025 – the day after Danny passed away in hospital.
Danny told police he was woken up by an attack in his bedroom by two black males – one of whom he recognised as being at The Quay in Oreston a few weeks previously. He explained how his lamp light was on and he was being hit or stabbed with a man holding a screwdriver. He told police he fought back and was shouting and screaming at the men in an attempt to “scare them off”.
He said he recalled a long handled screwdriver which was being used to stab him and that he had fought for it and used it to hit one of his attackers. He recalled the main attacker had plaits while the other man appeared to stand back. He said this man appeared to have a knife.
Police on scene guard following acid attack incident in Lipson Road, Plymouth(Image: Carl Eve/PlymouthLive)
He recalled one of the men shouting “where’s the peas” which meant where was the money, but he had replied there was no money.
He said he effectively chased the men out of back door of the property, the way he believed they got in, and locked the door. He said he could not be sure he had been hit with acid at this point and was trying to go out the front door but it was double locked and he slipped over. Around the same time he heard glass breaking and one of the men raced back in and threw acid over him.
Danny told police that he remembered “screaming” at his front door and three men coming to his aid and him “screaming ‘call the police'” adding “I knew it was acid”.
He told police: “The guys who did it was gone” but he remembered moments later, when sat on a wall at the front of his house a “grey saloon” raced down the road, only briefly stopping as another neighbour crossed the road. He told police they “stopped for a split second, then sped off”.
His next memory was of paramedics coming and then collapsing before he “woke up here on Sunday, completely bewildered, not having a clue what happened.” He added: “I was told I was the victim of a severe chemical attack”.
Police on scene guard following acid attack incident in Lipson Road, Plymouth(Image: Carl Eve/PlymouthLive)
Asked to recount more details about the lead up to the incident and the incident itself, Danny remembered he spoke to his ex-wife Paris on the Thursday and went along with a new arrangement which involved going to Paris’s mother’s house. He said he thought this was “a bit weird”, saying he later wondered if the men who had attacked him had somehow followed him from Paris’s mother’s house to his address in Lipson Road.
He told police that if it had been a “straight fight” with the two men in his home that night “I was confident of beating them”, but added that he was hampered because “obviously, acid was in the mix – and that changes everything”.
Referring to the incident at Oreston, he said he recalled that three men came over to him and that included the man with “plaits” who later attacked him in his home.
He said he wondered “what the f*** is going on here” during the Oreston incident, saying “there’s people jumping out at me… and I though my ex had set me up.” He said he remembered she was “very specific” about what time he should outside her home.
Danny Cahalane and Paris Wilson(Image: Facebook)
He said Paris “knew I would be home that night” [of the attack at Lipson Road]. Danny went on to tell police that he had split up with his girlfriend at Christmas.
Speaking about the man who sprayed him with acid, Danny said “he’s changed my life – I’ll never be the same again”.
The jury also heard a statement read by prosecutor Joanna Martin KC from Tony Bleach, partner of Vivien Cahalane and described as Danny’s stepfather. He stated that he had been with Vivien for 28 years and had known Danny since he was just 10 years old. He said Danny moved to Plymouth around 17 year ago.
Tony told police that Danny had told him what had happened that night, telling him one man was armed with a screwdriver which he was able to get off him and hit him with it. Danny said the other man was armed with a knife and the man he was hitting with the screwdriver had shouted “shiv him” – meaning the second man should knife Danny. However Danny said this second man “seemed to freeze and do nothing”.
Tony said Danny was having operations “every day” to treat his injuries. He said he remembered being at the hospital when police came to record an interview with Danny and it was agreed that he, Tony, should stay in the room for this, helping Danny refill his water bottle. He said Danny knew the man behind the attack went by the name of Frost. Danny later told Tony that he had gone to school with Frost’s brother. He admitted that he owed Frost money and was paying him back but that this was “too late”.
He said he knew that Danny and Paris were separated and had lived apart for around three years.
Tony revealed that he later showed a CCTV image taken in a Wiltshire village of two men which had been posted online who were being sought in relation to the attack. The court was told by Ms Martin KC that this was seen on a Plymouth press website and that Tony had printed it out and showed it to Danny. Danny replied “that’s the one” and identified both men as being in his house on the night of the attack. He told Tony the man closest to the camera was the man with the screwdriver and the other man was the one who froze.
Ms Martin KC said the one at the front of the CCTV was Asante, while the one at the back was Augustus.
On learning that a man had been arrested, Tony said he saw an article on Plymouth Live which showed the suspect. He sent the image – which was of Israel Augustus as he attended Plymouth Magistrates’ Court – to Danny. Danny told Tony that was the man he hit with the screwdriver.
Israel Augustus – accused of acid attack in Lipson Road, arriving at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court on Saturday March 8, 2025(Image: Carl Eve/PlymouthLive)
Mr Bleech said he was told that on Sunday May 3 he was told Danny had died. He said he was shocked as he thought he was recovering. He said doctors had told him they had tried to revive him but could not save him. In his statement, Tony said Danny’s mother, Vivien, died on the evening of Sunday May 4 “just the day after Danny.”
A total of 10 defendants – seven men from London and three women from Plymouth – are on trial, with seven of these accused of Mr Cahalane’s murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter, on May 3, 2025.
They are Paris Wilson, 35, of The Quay, Plymouth; Jude Hill, 43, of Wantage Gardens, Plymouth; Abdulrasheed Adedoja, 23, of Neasden, London; Ramarnee Bakas-Sithole, 23, of Islington, London; Israel Augustus, aged 26, of Tottenham, London; Isanah Sungum, 22, of Edmonton, London; and Brian Kalemba, 23, of Barking, London.
Five of the defendants are charged with the attempted kidnapping and attempted grievous bodily harm of Mr Cahalane on January 19 2025, at The Quay in Oreston, Plymouth. They are Adedoja, Bakas-Sithole and Wilson, along with Jean Mukuna, 23, and Arrone Mukuna, 25, both of Camden, London.
All ten deny the charges.
The trial continues