20
year old Naomi Oni was disfigured for life when a unknown person wearing a
niqab threw acid in her face as she walked home from work on Sunday December
30th in Lodge Avenue Dagenham, east London.
Naomi told The Evening Standard that she was on her way back from work when she heard someone behind her. She explains:
Naomi told The Evening Standard that she was on her way back from work when she heard someone behind her. She explains:
'I’d been
working a late shift and was talking to my boyfriend about what we were going
to do for New Year when I saw this Muslim woman wearing a niqab covering her
face. I thought it was a bit strange at that time of night, but she didn’t say
anything and I kept on walking.
'Then I
felt a splash on my face. It burned and I screamed out. I started running and
screaming, holding my face, all the way home. I didn’t look back. I got home
and I was screaming and banging on the door. I was hysterical. Luckily my
godmother, who is a pharmacist, was at home with my mum and she helped me and
kept dipping my face in water and trying to calm me down until the police and
ambulance got there.
Naomi recently released
photos of her disfigured face after police failed to find the person who did
this to her. She's now appealing to the public to help her catch her attacker.
She said she would never feel safe with her attacker still at large. She also
said the attack has destroyed her life
'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 in my job and in my personal life, 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.
Even with the support of my
family and friends and boyfriend I feel very alone,' she said. 'Nothing is
going to be same anymore.'
Naomi faces years of skin
grafts and plastic surgery
