Veiled acid attack on Victoria's Secret worker
A Victoria's Secret worker who had acid thrown at her by a veiled woman has revealed her horror after seeing her terrible burns for first time.
According to the Daily Mail this morning, the 20-year-old said she no longer wanted to live after seeing her facial injuries.
Naomi Oni was walking home from her job at a Victoria's Secret lingerie shop when the woman, whose face was covered by the veil, hurled the liquid.
She had surgery after the assault but her head "had swollen to 10 times its normal size and her face had turned black".
Her eyes were swollen and she was in great pain, she told BBC London.
"I've never been so scared in my life. I just knew it was acid," Miss Oni said. "The first time I looked I was shocked. I didn't want to live after I saw my face."
According to the Daily Mail, doctors initially feared that Miss Oni had been blinded. But after a month's treatment she recovered sight in her left eye and partial vision in her right.
Miss Oni has only recently been discharged from hospital but has decided to speak out to help police catch her attacker.
She told the Mail that she was determined to stay positive despite her injuries.
The incident, on December 30, happened about 12.40am in Dagenham, East London, after Miss Oni finished her late shift at Victoria's Secret in the Westfield shopping centre in nearby Stratford.
According to the Daily Mail, she was just five minutes from the council flat she shares with her disabled mother, when she became aware of someone standing behind her and decided to turn around and look back.
She then saw the woman, who was wearing a niqab - which reveals only the eyes - staring at her and felt a "splash" on her face.
It is not known whether the attack had been motivated by Miss Oni's work for the American underwear chain, the Mail reports.
"I got to my door and was shouting acid, acid, acid. Before I could feel it burning, I just knew it was acid, I thought OK someone is out to... kill me," she said.
"I still ask myself the same question every day, Why me? What have I done? I didn't understand.
"I look in the mirror and it just isn't me. I'll never look the same again.
"I've always been outgoing and confident - used to getting attention for the way I dress or my hair - but now I don't want anyone looking at me.
"I don't want people to see me in public. I don't want to get the Tube or the bus. If I have to go to the hospital I take a taxi.
"I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back to my job.
"I was planning to go to college in September to study media and fashion, but I don't even know if I'll be able to do that."
A Scotland Yard spokesman said an investigation was still underway.
