A teenager who squirted acid into the faces of three people in Canterbury city centre has been locked up for nine years.

Fahad Abdi, 18, lay in wait before spraying his victims with the corrosive liquid in a vicious attack caught on CCTV.

A jury at Canterbury Court heard he had taken over the city home of one of his victims in order to sell Class A drugs.

But when he thought his stash of cocaine and cash had been stolen he put on a mask, armed himself with acid and went looking for revenge.

Today, the teenage thug was sentenced to nine years in a Young Offender’s Institution for the attack on Janet Durrant, Emily Thompson and Justin Vincent.

Judge James O’Mahony also ordered him to spend a further three years on licence after his release, branding him a “vicious and violent man”.

He told Abdi: “It is absolutely shocking to me that someone of your age could commit such a wicked and cowardly act.

“You are a vicious and violent man who decided that even though there was no evidence that any of your victims had done anything wrong, you were going to punish all three of them.”

Prosecutor Simon Taylor had told the jury how Abdi had travelled from his east London home to Canterbury to “peddle misery” by selling hard drugs.

“He had adopted a common practice which is colloquially known as cuckooing,” he said.

“This effectively involves finding a local drug user and using their home as a base for supplying drugs. In return, the dealer gives the local drug user drugs as payment.”

The day before the attack in February police had stopped Abdi and found £500 in cash on him, but they let him go.

Mr Taylor said the victims had lived in Canterbury and it was where Abdi stored his drugs and money.

“Things didn’t go to plan and some of his drugs were stolen from the property while he was out going about his business,” he said.

“Predictably, the defendant suspected that Miss Durrant, Miss Thompson or Mr Vincent were involved in the theft of his drugs.”

The prosecutor claimed that Abdi pulled a knife on Miss Durrant and threatened her, although she was unharmed.

Mr Taylor added: “However, at around 4pm on February 10 the defendant followed through his threat in St Peter’s Place Canterbury.

“He approached Ms Thompson and Mr Vincent and sprayed them with a noxious substance.”

"You are a vicious and violent man who decided that even though there was no evidence that any of your victims had done anything wrong, you were going to punish all three of them" - Judge James O'Mahony

The jury heard that neither of them would cooperate with police in the investigation – but the prosecutor thanked KentOnline's sister paper the Kentish Gazette for supplying a photograph taken of Mr Vincent after he was interviewed for a story following the attack.

The prosecutor added that Abdi later sprayed Ms Durrant in the face with the acid, adding: “Whatever this substance was it caused blistering and burns to the face, loss of sight, extreme pain, and swelling to each of the faces of the people who were targeted by the defendant.”

Abdi was arrested 40 minutes after the attack at Canterbury East railway station as he tried to flee the city.

He denied the offences but was convicted by a jury.

Judge O’Mahony told him: “This is about as bad a case as this court has heard in a very long time. You have showed yourself to be perfectly capable of menacing people with your extremely violent behaviour.

“When you found your stash of drugs and money had gone missing you became vicious and very nasty.”

After the hearing, investigating officer Detective Constable Terence Seager said: "This public act of aggression left the victims with little time to protect themselves from what can only be described as a callous attack.

"Abdi has shown that even at such a young age he is capable of premeditated violence with absolutely no regard for life. This was a particularly vicious assault which has physically and emotionally scarred the victims.

"Thankfully he will now serve time in prison and the people of Canterbury will be far safer as a result."