A DAD recorded a child screaming in pain as ‘evidence’ an acid attack had been 'successful', a jury was told.

Audio of the three-year-old boy crying in Home Bargains in Worcester was played to the jury at Worcester Crown Court yesterday.

The 29 second audio recording was made on former bouncer Jan Dudi’s phone three seconds after the boy was squirted with acid by Adam Cech at 2.16pm on Saturday, July 21 last year.

Seven defendants in total deny the conspiracy including the child's father, a 40-year-old Afghan. The other defendants are alleged 'middle men' (Afghans Jabar Paktia and Saied Hussini), three Slovaks (Adam Cech, Jan Dudi and Norbert Pulko) and a Czech, Martina Badiova.

The recording was made by Dudi pressing and holding down the microphone icon on Facebook Messenger and only ceased when the icon was released. Dudi claims the recording was made by accident and he had been talking to his wife using the app at the time of the attack, asking her if he should buy toys for their children. His case is that he entered the shop to carry out surveillance on a woman suspected of cheating by her estranged husband, the Afghan father said by the prosecution to be at the centre of the alleged conspiracy.

Jonathan Rees QC told Dudi he must have pressed the icon to record the audio. “You just happened to do that three seconds after the attack was carried out?” said Mr Rees.

Speaking through a Slovak interpreter Dudi answered: “While I was on the phone perhaps I pressed something, I don’t know.”

When asked if he was suggesting he had not pressed the icon deliberately he answered ‘yes’. He was asked if he knew whether it was possible to make an audio recording while still engaged in a Facebook Messenger call and he replied ‘I don’t know’.

Mr Rees said: “I suggest that the reason you made that recording was to get evidence that the attack had been carried out.”

Dudi denied this was the case. Raising his voice slightly, Mr Rees said: “You deliberately recorded that little boy crying after the attack, didn’t you?”

“No” said Dudi. Mr Rees asked the recording to be played. The boy’s screams could be heard clearly above the loud background noise in the shop and Dudi’s own voice. But Dudi said if it was meant as evidence he would have sent the recording.

Mr Rees also asked him why he had left the shop so soon if his purpose for going in there was to ‘watch the woman’, the mother of the child who suffered the burns. Dudi said the intention was to continue to watch her from the car but Pulko had said they should all go home because they were ‘tired’. Mr Rees also asked him why he was later paid £150 if he had left the store and ‘aborted the (surveillance) mission'.

Mr Rees said: “All three of you decided to get out of Home Bargains quickly because all three of you had succeeded in carrying out the acid attack.”

“I wasn’t aware of anything like that” said Dudi who was arrested in London with Cech and Pulko at 3am on July 23 last year.

Despite being tired Dudi said he had not gone shopping with his wife (the subject, he said, of his Facebook Messenger conversation with her in Home Bargains) and had not gone to sleep when he got home (the reason he said the three of them decided to leave the shop).

Mr Rees said: “It’s just rubbish isn’t it Mr Dudi? Your account of why you left is absolute rubbish, isn’t it?”

“No” replied Dudi.

Dudi accepted he was in a Vauxhall Vectra with Pulko and Cech at 10.20am when it arrived at the car park of the Blackpole Inn in Worcester before the attack. Dudi was asked what he had gone there to pick up and answered 'money'. Mr Rees said 'acid' and Dudi replied 'no'. At 10.49am a photo was received on Hussini's phone showing a blister to an arm which the prosecution say was one of the three men testing the acid. Cech and Dudi both rolled up their sleeves and the tattoos suggest it was not their arms in the image.

Dudi was asked if it was Pulko's arm and he answered 'I don't know' but accepted the photo appeared to have been taken inside Cech's Vectra. Dudi was asked how Pulko could have taken the photo without him noticing but he told the jury he had not seen anything.

"It could only be Pulko, couldn't it?" said Mr Rees. But Dudi maintained he had not seen anything and had not seen Pulko take any acid from the child's father or hand any to Cech. He was also asked why his 'best friend', Adam Cech, had carried out an attack without telling him.

"I don't know. Probably he was worried I might stop him" said Dudi.

It was also revealed to the jury that neither Pulko nor Paktia will give evidence from the witness box despite being warned by their barristers of the inferences the jury may draw.

The trial continues.