'My face was melting': Woman burned with acid
A young woman has described the moment she had acid thrown on her face in a horrific domestic violence incident.
Adele Bellis, from the United Kingdom, was waiting at a bus stop on August 14 when a man, Jason Harrison, threw sulphoric acid on her, disfiguring her face.
The attack had been organised by her jealous ex-boyfriend Anthony Riley.
When it first happened, Bellis said she just thought a stranger had thrown water on her.
“My first reaction was, 'Oh my goodness, I have to go to work with my hair like this,” she told This Morning.
“But then, the burning started.
“My face was melting. I could feel the acid completely dissolving my ear.”
The acid began dripping onto the 23-year-old’s hands, arms and legs.
She was rushed to hospital, where she was treated for burns.
Sadly, this was not the first domestic violence attack Bellis had endured.
Earlier in the year, Riley had organised for a heroin addict to stab her in the face down an alleyway.
The former beautician says she should have called police long before the abuse got to the that point.
‘Why have I let this guy do this to me? All this stuff had happened in the past and I’d never gone to the police. If I hadn’t have been attacked by acid, I’d probably still be with him now," she recalled thinking while lying in hospital.
Bellis is encouraging other victims of domestic violence to contact police.
“It is hard, but you need to go to the police, because if it happens once, it will carry on, and it becomes harder and harder to get out of the relationship,” she told This Morning.
Riley was convicted of orchestrating the attacks on Bellis.
Harrison and Thompson were also convicted for their roles.
Morning news break – September 15
