…Victim NAOMI ONI tells Journalist…
Curled from SUN NEWS…
We reported the sad story of the Nigerian
girl that has been left scarred for life by acid in London, but
just last night she bravely pleaded for her attacker to come forward.
Naomi Oni, 20, suffered
full thickness burns to her face, arm, hand and leg in the terrible incident.
She was also left blind
for two days and lost her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes after a person in a
niqab threw the liquid over her as she walked home from work.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, the
Victoria’s Secret shop assistant from Dagenham, east London,
said: “This could have happened to anyone and I just want this person to come
forward. How can they sleep at night knowing they have done this?“I have
stopped hating them. I just feel sorry for them and I wonder what’s going on in
their life to want to make someone else suffer like that.“But I would like to
see them caught, for everybody’s sake.”
She said:
“The doctors were washing my eyes out for
about 45 minutes and afterwards I looked in the mirror. My head was about ten
times its normal size and my face was so swollen. What shocked me the most is
that it was so black. I’m light skinned and I looked likeburnt toast.“I started
crying. If Ato hadn’t been with me I would have tried to take my own life. I
thought, ‘My life is never going to be the same again’. I wanted to train as a
theatrical and media make-up artist but I thought, ‘Who will hire me
looking like this?’It sounds silly but I was still in shock. I was so angry
because I had just had my hair permed and extensions put in and I was so
annoyed they were ruined. I just hadn’t taken in what had happened to me.”
Naomi had an
operation to remove the damaged tissue from her face and head and was
given an allograft — in which doctors use a synthetic skin to cover wounds.
She then had another op
to graft skin from her right thigh on her face, forehead and left thigh. The
graft has pulled down her right eyelid, meaning she cannot close her eye
properly.
Medics have told her she
will have to wear a plastic mask in future to help her skin heal.
She joked: “When
I first saw it I thought, ‘This is awkward, my thigh is on my face’.”
Naomi, who was discharged
on January 25, spent three nights staying in a bed and breakfast with mum
Marian because they were too afraid to go back to their council house.
Naomi said:
“I’m afraid to go back to
Dagenham because my attacker is still out there. How can I go back if I might
bump into them again?”Police have found no CCTV footage of the attacker, who
Naomi says was about 5ft 6in tall. She added: “The silhouette looked like a
woman but it could have been a man and they had the same complexion as me. The
police haven’t been able to find anyone — they even asked my aunt if I had done
it to myself, which really upset me. Why would anyone do this to
themselves?“Anyone who knows anything about this, please come forward. I just
don’t want it to happen to anyone else.”Naomi said she had been encouraged by
the story of model Katie Piper, who was severely burned in a deliberate acid
attack in 2008.She said: “I remember reading about Katie and really relating to
her because she was into fashion and the same things as me.“I remember
thinking, ‘If someone did that to me I would die’. She’s so brave. She’s given
me hope that I won’t always look like this and things will get better.”
Naomi, who had planned to
go to college this autumn, now hopes to help other facial injury victims. She
said:
“This has taught me that
life is too short to not follow your dreams — I have to go for it. Maybe I can
be a make-up artist working with people who have had a similar experience or
who have skin problems.”And despite her ordeal Naomi insisted it had
made her stronger.She added: “This has made me realise so much about
myself.“Before, I was a fashionable girl and I loved make-up. I loved my hair
extensionsand long hair — at work they called me Beyonce.
“The person who did this couldn’t have chosen
a better target if they wanted to get someone who liked to look good. I felt
they were laughing, as if to say, ‘You like to look pretty, how are you going
to do that now?’ ”She added: “It doesn’t bother me now to look at myself in the
mirror. I used to spend three hours getting ready to go out but that’s not
important to me now because I know looks don’t define a person.“The person I
was before lacked confidence. I’m proud to be who I am. Girls worry about
stupid things, saying, ‘I don’t have this’ or, ‘I don’t look like that
celebrity’ and they don’t have any love for themselves.“I have it now
— it took something awful to make me realise it.“They may have burned my skin,
but they can’t burn my soul.”
WHAT A LIFE !
- Aijay Ibeneme, Conrad Agbebaku and 2 others like this.
- Smart Patricia U hav defeited them girl. So happy for u, bcos, u did nt allow those wicked pple to robb u of ur happiness n salvation.
- Lucretia Onyinye Dominic · 9 mutual friendsWhat a sad story! But I love your courage Naomi. Go for your dreams girl..
