A mother who helped plan a deadly doorstep acid attack on her former husband has been sentenced to nine years in prison.
Paris Wilson, 35, played a central role in arranging the attack on fitness instructor and drug dealer Danny Cahalane, passing details of his movements to a drugs kingpin after Cahalane gambled away £120,000 belonging to him.
Wilson was found guilty of manslaughter and also convicted of attempted kidnap, after prosecutors said she lured the 38-year-old into an ambush a month before the fatal assault.
The acid attack in February 2025 left corrosive liquid burning through skin across a third of Cahalane’s body. He died from his injuries ten weeks later.
Wilson, who shared a daughter with Cahalane, broke down in court as the judge heard that the victim’s mother, Vivien Cahalane, died just one day after her son, having missed chemotherapy appointments so she could remain by his hospital bedside.
During the trial, jurors were told Wilson was willing to betray her ex-husband in exchange for a few thousand pounds and a holiday to Turkey.
Sentencing the graduate this afternoon, Mrs Justice Heather Norton described Wilson as a “key participant in this offence”, saying her actions were driven by greed, revenge against her ex-husband, or possibly both.
The judge told the court: “Danny Cahalane died as a consequence of horrific injuries suffered when he was doused in acid.”
Paris Wilson, 35, who shared a child with Danny Cahalane, was accused of setting Mr Cahalane up to be ambushed
Wilson, pictured in her mugshot, had helped orchestrate the acid attack in exchange for ‘a couple of grand’
Danny Cahalane (pictured) died ten weeks after he was targeted in a doorstep acid attack
She told Wilson that she came up with the calculated kidnap plan during child contact arrangements.
The judge said: ‘In my judgement as trial judge this was clearly a murder for gain.
‘I am satisfied that you (Wilson) knew that this assault was going to take place at (Cahalane’s) address at night.
‘However hard the impact is on you, the impact on those left behind is immeasurably greater.’
The judge said Wilson knew that acid could be used in the attack because of the failure to pay for drugs.
The court heard Wilson has been a role model prisoner since being in custody and has already secured a job offer with a construction firm for when she is released.
The polictical science graduate had found work in the offshore renewable energy industry and met Cahalane on social media while he was serving a long jail sentence in Dartmoor Prison for drug dealing.
Ms Justice Norton said that Wilson did not deal drugs, ‘but was happy to associate with those who did and provide assistance’.
‘You more than tolerated Danny Cahalane’s drug activities,’ the judge told Wilson.
‘Whatever your motivation was, whether money, security or revenge, in that moment your main concern was yourself.’
The 18-week trial heard Wilson fed information on father-of-two Mr Cahalane’s whereabouts to an international drugs baron Ryan Kennedy, who Cahalane owed money to.
When Cahalane failed to hand over £120,000 from drugs sold on his behalf, Kennedy, who was based in Dubai and had the nickname Frost, set out to exact his revenge.
Mr Cahalane, pictured with ex-wife Wilson, was ‘doused in acid’ in his own home in Plymouth
Ramarnee Bakas-Sithole, 23, was also convicted of the manslaughter of Danny Cahalane
Hi, I’m Alex Matthews, Editor of The Crime Desk.
In 2014, we revealed the bombshell evidence identifying Aaron Kosminski as the fabled Jack the Ripper. Now, we can reveal his astonishing connection to the Freemasons and claims this motivated his killings and protected him from life in prison.
Sign up here to get our exclusive piece for free.
‘I’m a millionaire, I ain’t stopping until your (sic) dead,’ Frost told Cahalane in a message read to the jury.
In November 2024, Wilson received a message on Snapchat from Kennedy, who told her about Cahalane’s drug debt and how it could become ‘everybody’s debt’.
Frost recruited Wilson to help locate his target – and then dispatched a hit squad from London to travel to Plymouth in Devon to take him out.
Footage showed Wilson break down in tears when police attended her flat to take her to the scene of the attack on Cahalane, where her daughter had been asleep upstairs.
Wilson sobbed: ‘I’m a bad mum..because i know what he’s like and I made the f****** decision to let her go with him.’
When she was told by officers that Cahalane was a victim, she screamed: ‘No he’s not. He’s not a f****** victim….He’s brought this upon himself and I knew about it.
‘I knew he was in debt and to people and I still let my daughter go there.’
As she was driven away, she told the officer their lives had gone in ‘totally different directions’ since they separated in 2022 and Cahalane was ‘caught up in a lot of bad stuff.’
Wilson, had had been cleared of murder, was sentenced at Winchester Crown Court alongside Ramarnee Baka, who was also convicted of manslaughter, and Abdulrasheed Adedoja and Israel Augustus, who were convicted of murder.
The court heard Adedoja had been in close contact with the drugs boss and was instrumental in the plot to do Cahalane serious harm.
Bakas provided practical support such as a stolen car, while Augustus was present and involved in the attack on Danny.
The men, all from London, were jailed for a combined 71 years.
Earlier, prosecutor Jo Martin KC read out a family impact statement written by Cahalane’s aunt, Jayne Keeper, which said: ‘The impact of Danny’s death on the family has been immeasurable.
‘Danny’s children lost their father, the man who provided care and protected them.
‘Despite this Paris Wilson would often put pressure on him for gifts and used [their daughter] as a threat.
‘Vivien’s dedication and the speed that Vivien was taken from us has left the family in a state of shock.’
Another statement, read out by Ms Martin on behalf of Cahalane’s stepfather Tony Bleach, said: ‘Knowing the suffering he must have experienced is something that stays with me. As a father I struggle to deal with that.
‘Parents should not outlive their children.’
Jennifer Knight KC, defending Wilson, said: ‘She has lost her children’s childhood. They will be adults by the time she is released.’
Ms Knight KC explained that Wilson – formerly a business development manager – has been studying or working for all her life and was proud to be able to financially support her children.
She said that since being in prison she has been classed as an ‘enhanced’ prisoner and has 14 undertaken courses – including health and safety courses, one with the Open University and a GCSE to support her teenage daughter.
Abdulrasheed Adedoja and Israel Augustus were both convicted of murdering Mr Cahalane
Wilson, from Plymouth, has also had jobs in the prison gym, baby unit and in reception of a hair salon.
She said construction firm Kier have offered Wilson a job once she is released, on the back of her work. It was heard she took up a construction course in prison.
Wilson married Cahalane in October 2020, and the couple split up in around June 2022 – the same year Cahalane was given a suspended prison sentence for possession with intent to supply cocaine and money laundering.
Cahalane was threatened in January 2025 by men who tried to rip his car door open as he shut it – acting on Frost’s orders.
Wilson admitted telling Frost her address and what time Cahalane would arrive at her house in the January incident.
Ms Martin said Wilson helped in exchange for ‘a couple of grand’ and because she thought he ‘deserved’ to get hurt.
On January 8, Wilson messaged her mother saying: ‘I’m worried about my karma, but at least nobody but Dan gets hurt, and he did f*** massively with my life…and he deserves it.’
Wilson told jurors that she did not expect Cahalane to receive any more than a punch.
She said: ‘I certainly never foresaw anything more than a punch in the face.
‘A better way to say it was that he would get into a fight.’
She also admitted the pair had a ‘turbulent’ relationship, and said she had heard Frost threaten to ‘melt’ Cahalane.
Weeks before the fatal attack, she texted Cahalane saying ‘I hope you and your butters girl both end up with acid on your faces’.
The term ‘butters’ is a slang word that means ugly.
Wilson insisted she was just being ‘nasty’ and was ‘just relaying’ threats that had been hurled towards Mr Cahalane from Frost.
Adedoja, 23, and Augustus, 27, were both jailed for life with a minimum of 31 years and 30 years respectively.
The pair threw the acid at Mr Cahalane.
Ramarnee Bakas, 23, was jailed for ten years for manslaughter.
One reference written for Adedoja by his sister had to be ignored by Ms Justice Norton as she said it was ‘clearly generated by AI’.
Augustus was also sentenced for other drug offences and possessing a zombie knife.
Outside court, Detective Superintendent Rachael Bentley of Devon and Cornwall Police’s Major Crime Investigation Team said: ‘This was a particularly barbaric attack on a man in his own home – a place he should have been safe.
‘Despite for a time successfully fighting off his attackers, Danny must have been terrified.
‘Acid attacks remain rare in Devon and Cornwall but are a particularly cowardly and devastating means of violence.’
In total nine people were on trial at Winchester Crown Court.
Jude Hill, 43, from Plymouth, Devon, was previously jailed for 32 months, having previously admitted a charge of being concerned in the supply of cannabis.
Isanah Sungum, 23, from London, was jailed for 26 months having been found guilty of participating in organised criminal activity.
Jean Mukuna, 24, and Arrone Mukuna, 25, from London were jailed for 52 months and 16 months respectively, having been found guilty of the attempted kidnap of Mr Cahalane.
Brian Kalemba, 23, from London, was acquitted.
