Mary Konye, the 21 year old jealous friend being
accused of attacking Naomi Oni with acid in Dec.
2012 made some shocking allegations of her own in
court today. She told the courts through her lawyers
that Naomi set up the attack and asked her (Mary
Konye) to 'play the stalker' and throw the acid on
her face, which was all part of an elaborate plan to
be rich and famous.
This makes no sense to me. Why would you want to
do that to yourself to be rich and famous? How
many rich and famous people have their faces
disfigured by acid? The things you hear.
Today Miss Oni insisted she was not 'obsessed'
with plastic surgery or the story of fellow acid
attack victim Katy Piper, despite an internet
search history on her laptop suggesting
otherwise.
In cross examination Sally O'Neill asked her to
explain to jurors the story of Ms Piper before
asking whether she had become obsessed by the
disfigured model.
Miss Oni said: 'I wouldn't say obsessed but it
deeply moved me. I read about other attacks but
it was not an obsession.'
Ms O'Neill said it was the defence case that she
hatched a plan with Konye to pour acid over
herself to improve her future prospects.
She said: 'You said if something similar to that of
Katy Piper happened to you then that wouldn't be
the end of the world because Katy Piper probably
had a career boost.'
Miss Oni simply replied: 'No.'
The defence barrister asked her why she had
visited a series of plastic surgery websites.
Miss Oni answered: 'I do not think I was very
pretty at all.
'I went on the sites for no reason in particular - I
had body issues and I was interested in plastic
surgery for my body but there was no particular
reason.
'I remember searching for my eyelids because I
had double eyelids which I didn't like so I planned
one day to see if I could do something about it.'
But Ms O'Neill said: 'You formalised a plan in
which you would become the victim of a random
acid attack in the hope that you would receive the
same type of fame and fortune as Katy Piper
had.'You were of the view that Katy Piper still
looked lovely after the attack but that you would
need something else to support the attack
because the police wouldn't believe you and that
was where you brought Mary Konye into it.
'Your play was, I suggest, that you would make
an allegation that you had been followed and
attacked and you wanted Mary Konye to be part
of that - you wanted her to follow you and also,
initially, wanted her to throw the acid.
'She absolutely refused to do that and you said
that you were actually going to throw the acid
yourself towards your neck area.'
Miss Oni replied: 'That is very untrue.'
Mary Konye, 21, admits disguising herself in a
niqab and stalking Naomi Oni, also 21, on her way
home from work, but denies she doused her in
sulphuric acid. Miss Oni yesterday described the
moment she was attacked and told Snaresbrook
Crown Court after she saw the damage done she
thought: ‘I’m ugly, no one’s going to marry me
now.'
Jurors were also shown CCTV of student Konye
disguised in a Muslim veil as she followed her
friend on the Tube, before she was attacked late
at night on an east London street.
Yesterday, she described how, on her way home
from work at a Victoria’s Secret lingerie store,
she got off at her bus stop in Dagenham, East
London, and felt a ‘presence’ before turning to
see someone in a niqab.
She then felt a ‘massive splash’ as the acid was
thrown at her, scarring her for life and disfiguring
her face, dissolving her hair and eyelashes and
burning her tongue as she screamed.
Describing how she felt after the attack, she said:
‘Am I a bad person? Why has this happened to
me? I work hard ... No one’s going to marry me
now.’
Miss Oni also revealed that when she told her
alleged attacker what had happened, her friend
texted back: ‘OMG. Can’t believe it.’
She also cried down the phone to Konye, who
offered her support, Snaresbrook Crown Court
heard.
She said: ‘I just had my bandages removed and it
was the first time I saw my face after surgery
and I broke down and I had spoken to Mary that
night and I was crying on the phone to her and
she was on the phone to me telling me, “don’t
worry, you’ll be OK”.’
Giving evidence yesterday, Miss Oni described
how she felt a ‘presence’ behind her as she
walked home.
She said: ‘I was still on the phone to my boyfriend
and I felt a presence. I turned to my left and I
saw someone and a black abaya [cloak] or a
black niqab.
‘I remember it facing me, staring. A presence
directly looking at me. All I could see was eyes.’
She then said she felt the splash as the acid was
thrown in her face and ran home shouting ‘acid,
acid’.
The court heard that the pair had a ‘rocky
relationship’ and had stopped speaking from April
to September 2011 after a row over Konye
sending text messages to Miss Oni’s boyfriend.
Miss Oni said: ‘I remember asking her why she
wanted to do that and I said she’s a monster or
something like that.
'I said you are a monster, you are an ugly
monster. I remember us insulting each other’s
looks.
'She also told me she was so angry she wanted
to throw acid at me, but she was advised not to
by her friend.
'Her friend said, “That’s stupid, you could go to
jail for that”.’
Asked what she thought at the time about the
threat, Miss Oni said: ‘I thought it was quite
bizarre, I felt insulted again. But she seemed like
she wasn’t serious. I thought she was trying to
frighten me a little bit.’
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