This is a continuation of the report on the horrific acid attack on a Nigerian, Miss Naomi Oni in Britain. A university student disguised in a Muslim veil stalked her before throwing acid in her face, a court heard yesterday.
Mary Konye, 21, was captured on CCTV using the niqab to hide her identity as she followed her victim home, before allegedly attacking her because she was jealous of her good looks, the jury heard.
Her victim Naomi Oni, also 21, gave evidence about her ordeal yesterday, describing her shock when she was attacked late at night on a London street.
She said that after she saw the damage done by the attack, she thought to herself: ‘I’m ugly, no one’s going to marry me now.’
Yesterday, she described how, on her way home from work at a Victoria’s Secret lingerie store, she got off at her bus stop in Dagenham, East London, and felt a ‘presence’ before turning to see someone in a niqab.
She then felt a ‘massive splash’ as the acid was thrown at her, scarring her for life and disfiguring her face, dissolving her hair and eyelashes and burning her tongue as she screamed.
Describing how she felt after the attack, she said: ‘Am I a bad person? Why has this happened to me? I work hard ... No one’s going to marry me now.’
Miss Oni also revealed that when she told her alleged attacker what had happened, her friend texted back: ‘OMG. Can’t believe it.’ She also cried down the phone to Konye, who offered her support, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
She said: ‘I just had my bandages removed and it was the first time I saw my face after surgery and I broke down and I had spoken to Mary that night and I was crying on the phone to her and she was on the phone to me telling me, “don’t worry, you’ll be OK”.’
Giving evidence yesterday, Miss Oni described how she felt a ‘presence’ behind her as she walked home.
She said: ‘I was still on the phone to my boyfriend and I felt a presence. I turned to my left and I saw someone and a black abaya [cloak] or a black niqab. ‘I remember it facing me, staring. A presence directly looking at me. All I could see was eyes.’
She then said she felt the splash as the acid was thrown in her face and ran home shouting ‘acid, acid’. She said: ‘I immediately felt that someone was trying to kill me and so my instinct was to run as fast as I could to get home. ‘I felt, it wasn’t burning, it was a dissolving type of sensation. It was on my face and I remember, as I had my mouth open screaming, it burnt my tongue.’
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| Naomi Oni in court yesterday |
The court heard that the pair had a ‘rocky relationship’ and had stopped speaking from April to September 2011 after a row over Konye sending text messages to Miss Oni’s boyfriend. Miss Oni said: ‘I remember asking her why she wanted to do that and I said she’s a monster or something like that. 'I said you are a monster, you are an ugly monster. I remember us insulting each other’s looks. 'She also told me she was so angry she wanted to throw acid at me, but she was advised not to by her friend. 'Her friend said, “That’s stupid, you could go to jail for that”.’
Asked what she thought at the time about the threat, Miss Oni said: ‘I thought it was quite bizarre, I felt insulted again. But she seemed like she wasn’t serious. I thought she was trying to frighten me a little bit.’
She also said that Katie Piper – the model who had acid thrown in her face by an accomplice of her ex-boyfriend – was her inspiration, adding: ‘I remember being deeply moved by her story and me and Mary discussed it.’
Konye, of Canning Town, East London, denies throwing or casting a corrosive fluid with intent to burn, maim, disfigure, disable or do grievous bodily harm. She admits following Miss Oni and to being the person wearing the niqab.
The case continues.
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