A court heard that a nightmare flatmate flung a saucepan of boiling oil over a man after having thoughts of mass murder. Ivan Bonaparte, 33, carried out the attack as part of a weird scheme to avoid homelessness after an impending eviction from his Dagenham home because he spent all of his rent money on a high potency strain of cannabis associated with an increased risk of psychotic mental health crises.
The aim was for Bonaparte to go to prison in order to have a roof over his head. On January 8, he was sentenced to six years in prison at Snaresbrook Crown Court after a lengthy history of violence that culminated in an unprovoked assault on his flatmate, Daniel Asianicasi, at their residence on Cambeys Road in Dagenham in July 2023.
After turning himself in at Dagenham police station 40 minutes later, the Portuguese citizen admitted to grievous harm and possession of a hammer. According to the Liverpool Echo, he was previously spared jail by a judge at Liverpool Crown Court in 2020 after warning another flatmate, ‘That will be one less gay in the world,’ while threatening him with a claw hammer and boiling kettle at their bedsit in Southport. Previous convictions for Bonaparte include GBH against his own father, common assault, and violation of a restraining order.
Mr Asianicasi then told police that he hadn’t spoken to Bonaparte in two months, but recalled a February 2023 incident in which his assailant shattered his door with a hammer because he was watching TV too loudly. Other roommates backed Bonaparte up, telling police he was “aggressive and unpredictable” and “someone to be afraid of.”
When questioned, Bonaparte stated that he was depressed, had lost his job, was late on rent, and worried being evicted would make him homeless. His plan was to pour boiling oil on his roommate in exchange for a “long prison sentence and help and support.” Another resident tried to persuade him out of it as they smoked cannabis together, but the plan went forward after a brief nap.
“He went to the kitchen and began cooking the oil… He said the moment he picked up the oil his heart was shaking because he knew what he was about to do. He knew it would cause serious burns and scarring and even a risk of death. His own feelings were more important to him at the time than those of the victim,” said Mr Unwin.
Bonaparte also had a hammer in his belt in case he was assaulted, and he lifted it as Mr Asianicasi raced screaming from the kitchen. In the same interview, he informed police he had been “having thoughts of mass murder,” and this episode demonstrated that he was “capable of doing something very serious,” according to Mr Unwin.
Mr Asianicasi was transported to Queen’s Hospital in Romford, then to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford’s burns unit, where he had a skin graft from his thigh to treat burns on his shoulder and back. For weeks, he was in’very very awful’ agony, with scars on his face, back, shoulder, and legs, and he was always at risk of infection, with his skin still peeling weeks later.
In an impact statement, he said: “When I was in hospital after what happened I was confused as I did not understand why he did this. We had no discussion before the attack. He just did this.
“Ivan is a threat to anyone around him. Most discussions we had he was convinced he was right. If someone disagreed he would become angry and threatening… One time I was watching TV on my day off and he hit my door with a hammer because he wanted me to turn the TV down.”
Defence counsel Danny Barnard stated that his client had ‘extreme remorse’ and had told him, ‘The guy did not deserve it, and I feel really, really bad about what I did’. Mr Barnard explained his motivation for the offence, claiming Bonaparte spent £120 each week on a’very powerful’ type of skunk cannabis, resulting in rent arrears and impending homelessness.
Judge Alison Levitt KC considered Bonaparte’s physically abusive upbringing at the hands of his father, but expressed ‘particular concern’ about his future risk to members of the public as she imposed a six-year sentence plus another four on licence, with four months to run concurrently for possession of an offensive weapon.
She cited his earlier conviction in 2020, when he boiled a kettle and threatened to scald the victim, causing a probation officer to warn that ‘prison cannot be the answer to Mr Bonaparte’s issues, especially when they entail the damage of others’. She described the use of hot oil as a ‘escalation’ of the threat posed by boiling water.
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