 |
| ATTACKER "MARY KONYE "FOUND GUILTY |
The horrific injuries of a Victoria's Secret worker who had acid hurled in her face have been revealed as her childhood friend has been found guilty of carrying out the attack while disguised in a Muslim veil.
Mary Konye, 21, stalked Naomi Oni from the lingerie store where she worked after her friend had likened her to a monster from a horror film. Miss Oni, also 21, was scarred for life after Konye doused her with concentrated sulphuric acid near her home in Dagenham,
Essex. CCTV footage obtained by police after the attack showed Konye in a niqab following her as she left work at the Victoria's Secret shop in Westfield shopping centre in Stratford at around 11.30pm. She suffered serious burns to her face and chest, lost her hair and eyelashes, and required skin graft surgery to cover the burns.
The jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court reached its unanimous verdict following around seven and a half hours of deliberations after it was sent out yesterday afternoon. Miss Oni's mother jumped from her set and appeared jubilant at the verdict. Judge David Radford adjourned sentence until March 7 while psychological reports are prepared and said: 'In ordering these reports my judgement is that in all likelihood the case well lead to a substantial custodial sentence. 'But it will not be decided until I have had these reports - I do not want Konye to misunderstand the reasons.'
He said: 'I should make clear that, in my judgment, this is a case that will, in all likelihood, need a substantial custodial sentence. It is inevitable, but it won’t be dealt with until I have received those reports.' He thanked the jurors for their efforts, saying they had looked at the evidence 'with great thoroughness, taking your time to reach your verdict'.
Miss Oni burst into tears as she left the courtroom and was hugged by family and friends. Konye, a business and finance student, of Canning Town, east London, had denied throwing or casting a corrosive fluid with intent to burn, maim, disfigure, disable or do grievous bodily harm. But dressed in black, Konye remained calm as the jury of eight men and four women returned their verdict. A jury at London's Snaresbrook Crown Court had earlier heard that, the day after the attack, Konye had offered Miss Oni a shoulder to cry on, and had sent a mobile phone message to her friend, who was in hospital receiving treatment, saying 'OMG, I can't believe it.' Konye, was also said to have asked Muslim students about where to buy a niqab, or Islamic veil.
The court heard that Konye told a friend she planned to have her raped and wanted to disfigure Miss Oni, saying: ‘I’m going to mess up the one thing that girl has – her looks.’ Omolola Vincent, 20, told the North-East London court: ‘She said she was going to throw acid on her. She told me she had acid. She bought it online.’ In 2008, model and TV presenter Katie Piper was badly scarred and left blind in one eye in an assault arranged by her ex-boyfriend, Daniel Lynch.
Miss Oni earlier told the court that Konye was aware of how much of an impact Ms Piper's ordeal had on her after watching a television documentary about it. The pair had been friends since secondary school, but suffered a vicious fall out in April 2011 when Miss Oni allegedly accused Konye of texting her boyfriend and called her an 'ugly monster'. Instead she claimed that Miss Oni had hatched an elaborate plan to throw acid in her own face so that she could become as famous as Miss Piper.
‘She said she could apply acid to herself and say she was attacked and I was just shocked - acid of all things, why acid,’ Konye said. Konye insisted she did not threaten to douse Miss Oni after she rowed with the victim in 2011 as two other friends have claimed. She said: ‘I have never made such a threat to anyone. I have never threatened to throw acid in anyone’s face. I do not know why they (Kamilah Andrews and Lola Vincent) would come to court and lie. I do not understand.’ Under cross-examination Miss Oni was accused of setting up the attack and asking friend Konye, to 'play the stalker' and throw the corrosive liquid over her. Miss Oni vehemently denied the claims made by Konye's QC, on the third day of the trial.
The court heard that the former friends 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. Giving evidence 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.’
 |
| NAOMI ONI BEFORE THE ATTACK |
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.
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”.’
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.’ Speaking outside court after Koyne was found guilty of the acid attack, family friend Sheila MacClean said Miss Oni had not wanted to believe her friend was guilty. She said: 'This was her friend, perhaps that's the cruelest thing. 'This was her friend and someone that she has known for ten years and this was the hardest thing of all for her. 'She never really believed it until she was forced to believe it. We are glad the verdict came out as the right truthful one and it has been quite a long and torturous ride and she reached the end of the tunnel.
'Her life was turned upside down and now her job is to find equilibrium and try and get her life back on track again. 'We are glad the right decision has been made, any doubts about her have been quelled.
'Today it reached its climax. She wants to be alone for a while and rebuild her life. "It was a very difficult journey for us, painful and difficult. 'But we want to thank everybody who stood by her, the surgeons that helped to rebuild her face, her legs, her arm, her fingers. 'Everyone's been marvellous to her, she's had so much love and care and support from her family. She needed all the support she could get and she's had that. Now she just wants to rebuild her life.'
Detective Chief Inspector David Whellams, of the Homicide and Major Crime Command, said: 'This was truly a horrific attack on the victim by someone she considered to be a friend. 'But Konye was almost obsessively jealous of the victim's good looks and, after a previous argument between them, hatched an almost unbelievable plan to attack her with acid. The victim's life has been changed forever - she will always bear the scars of what happened - but she has been incredibly brave and I am pleased she has seen justice done today.'
Friends of Miss Oni said as they left court that they were 'glad that a truthful verdict had been reached'.
Baljit Ubhey, Chief Crown Prosecutor in London, described the attack as 'extremely brutal'. 'The use of acid as a weapon is cruel and horrifying,' she said. 'It can have a devastating effect on victims and can cause long-term pain and disfigurement as well as emotional and psychological harm.'
She added: 'Mary Konye and the victim used to be friends and they had discussed the high-profile case of Katie Piper, who was the victim of an acid attack in 2008, and how Naomi had been particularly moved and upset by her story.
'Konye exploited this fear to cause maximum harm and her defence of suggesting that the victim would have thrown acid on herself was contemptible. 'Konye has now been brought to justice and must face the full consequences of her appalling actions. 'I would to like praise Naomi's courage and dignity in giving evidence during this trial.'
The childhood friendship torn apart by jealousy, competition and an obsession with looks
Mary Konye was born on 20 February 1992 in Newham, east London. Her father died when she was just two leaving her mother a single parent looking after her only child. While her mother went to work Konye was left in the care of a child-minder. When she was seven a family friend moved in to the flat in Canning Town, to help look after her. Konye would refer to the friend as 'Aunty' and she moved in with her to a house in Lawrence Street, Dagenham when she was 17.
By then her mother had re-married and Konye had a difficult relationship with her stepfather. Konye gained 8 GCSEs before studying for A-Levels in Sociology, Media, Business and Psychology at St Angela's Ursuline School, a Catholic secondary school for girls in Forest Gate. She spent another year at Southgate College doing A-Level retakes before winning a place at the University of Hertfordshire, studied accounting and finance in business.
Konye held down jobs in retail at New Look, Forever 21 and Next while studying. She was one term and an exam away from earning a BA honours degree when she was arrested last April for throwing acid over Naomi Oni, who had been one of her closest friends. When she first appeared in court last May she applied on bail on the basis she was a regular churchgoer.
Naomi Oni was born just nine days earlier than Konye on 11 February 1992 and had a far less turbulent childhood than her friend. They became friends from an early age and Miss Oni, blessed with good looks, was encouraged by Konye to pursue a career in modelling and the fashion industry. Miss Oni was less successful in her education and she dropped out of sixth form. She found a job at Victoria's Secret lingerie store in Westfield Stratford City and worked there full-time until Christmas 2013 when her hours were cut.
She would often be put on late shifts, finishing at 11.30pm at night.
The aspiring make-up artist was being chased by several admirers and rowed with Konye about the attention she was getting. After Miss Oni fell pregnant she confided in Konye that her boyfriend at the time, was not being supportive. Konye told him to provide the support Miss Oni needed. But Miss Oni was angered after learning that her friend had interfered with her relationship and the pair fell out.
Six months later they made up, but by then Konye had told college friends at Southgate that she wanted to throw acid over Naomi and that she would wear a niqab to disguise herself. After becoming friends in year 8 at St Angela's Ursuline School they had a 'typical' relationship during their teenage years.
Both admitting during the trial they would regularly fall out but then patch up their differences. Miss Oni had been moved by the story of Katie Piper who was also burnt with acid. She sent links to Konye about Ms Piper and it soon became a point of interest for both girls - one telling the other to check out new pictures of the disfigured model. It was claimed in court that Miss Oni thought Ms Piper looked even better after the attack and believed her career had taken off following the publicity.
Konye tried to use Naomi's obsession with Ms Piper against her. She claimed Miss Oni hatched a plan in which she would fall victim to a copycat attack so she could propel herself to fame and fortune.
Konye tried to convince jurors she dressed up in the niqab and followed her friend to make it look like a random attack.
No comments:
Post a Comment