Woman haunted by memory of ex-boyfriend setting her alight in vicious revenge attack
Newcastle woman Bianca Aravena suffered burns to 65 per cent of her body and spent five months in hospital after being attacked by her ex-boyfriend, who she says got off lightly sentenced to community service.
"I felt like I was in a horror movie," Ms Aravena told Today Tonight.
She was just 14 when her and her boyfriend, a teen himself, parted ways.
Ms Aravena was playing in a park with friends when her ex-boyfriend sought revenge for their break-up in the most horrific way possible.
"He lit the ice-cream container of petrol, gave me a smirk and kicked it on me," Ms Aravena said.
"My first throught was to drop and roll but petrol being petrol, you can’t really turn it around like that.
"I remember my skin falling off on my legs and off my arms as well."
She was in an induced coma for three months and spent five months in hospital.
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She underwent 13 operations and had to learn to walk and write again.
The once bubbly and confident young girl found hardest to accept her changed reflection when she looked in the mirror.
"To see that, my face and my body, was a big shock - I didn’t love myself for many, many years," she said.
Years on, and her reflection is still a constant reminder of that fateful day, but it has only made her stronger.
"As much I despise what he has done to me, I feel a lot better in myself - I've grown to love myself even more than I did before," she said.
While she is scarred forever, her perpetrator got off lightly, as far as she knows, with just community service.
"I also got told he only did it [the community service] in the local hospital here," she said.
"Even to this day, it still angers and frustrates me."
Victim wants tougher penalties for attackers
Perth-based Dana Vulin is also a victim after she was set alight by a jealous girlfriend in 2012.
The woman believed Ms Vulin was having a relationship with her husband.
"I woke up to a voice of a woman saying 'Dana' - she was in my apartment," Ms Vulin said.
"She doused me in spirirts and set me on fire and as I burned alive, she watched me and laughed, leaving me to die."
The woman is serving a 17-year sentence, three years less than the maximum penalty for causing grievous bodily harm.
"I feel like 17 years is a slap on wrist," Ms Vulin said.
"It is a next level crime - I would have much preferred to have been stabbed, shot or even hit by a car."
While she has written a book on her survival and recovery, her fight is far from over.
She wants to see at least 25 years as a jail time served for this crime.
"Maybe an amendment to the act adding an additional six years for using accelerant or intentionally burning anyone," she said.
"We want to prevent this from happening to anyone again - it’s a fair ask, beyond fair."
