Black Roses and Red Dresses: The pathetic story of acid-attack survivors

In far away Scotland, a woman by Naomi Oni was on her way home from work when acid was thrown in her face. Naomi who was left with scar after the attack has accused Scotland Yard of incompetence, saying police initially claimed she had done it to herself.

Naomi Oni suffered severe burns when Mary Konye, who has since been jailed for 12 years, threw acid in her face. She said police had been slow to act on information she gave them about the 2012 attack. The Metropolitan Police said they had considered all lines of enquiry in the early stages of their investigation.

Speaking to Today’s Mishal Husain, 22-year-old Ms Oni said it almost felt like she had “been accused of lying” after her then-friend attacked her in Dagenham, east London.

She said police had been incompetent “to kind of accuse me of doing it to myself, when I’ve said somebody has followed me from my workplace to my home”.

‘Nobody has answers’

Ms Oni added: “When I was in court and I saw the CCTV footage, I just looked at it and I thought: ‘Well, you can blatantly see that what I said is what happened, so where did that decision come from?’”

Konye, also 22, of Canning Town, east London, allegedly attacked Ms Oni because she had called her ugly.

CCTV footage showed her wearing a veil and secretly following Ms Oni home from her job at a Victoria’s Secret shop in December 2012.

Initially, police did not act on what Ms Oni had told them about the circumstances, she has alleged.

“I even got told that they watched the CCTV footage and they saw no-one following me,” she said.

“We’ve all seen the CCTV footage. There was a person in a veil following me.

“Why was this not found in the beginning? Nobody has answers to tell me.”

It was argued in court that Ms Oni was trying to find fame and fortune following a similar incident in which model and TV presenter Katie Piper was partially blinded.

But she said the reason she looked up the case on the internet was that she had seen a documentary on Miss Piper and found it “a moving and touching story”.