Woman Charged Over Acid Attack On A Victoria's Secret Shop Worker Naomi Oni

'Somehow I knew it was acid': Naomi Oni describes the horrific attack that left her with chemical burns

A woman is to be charged in connection with an acid attack on a shop worker that left her with horrific injuries, the Crown Prosecution Service announced today [Apr. 30].

Naomi Oni, 21, suffered burns and lost her hair and eyelashes after the chemical was thrown at her in Lodge Avenue, Dagenham, east London at around 12.40am on December 30.

Today, the CPS announced that it has authorised Scotland Yard to charge Mary Konye in relation to the attack.

SCHOCKING: Before and After The  Attack

CPS London Senior Crown Prosecutor Damaris Lakin said:

I concluded that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that it is in the public interest to charge Ms Konye with throwing or casting a corrosive fluid with intent to burn, maim, disfigure, disable or do grievous bodily harm.

Konye will appear before Barkingside Magistrates Court in Ilford, Essex, tomorrow.

Miss Oni was targeted by a woman wearing an Islamic veil as she returned home from her job at the lingerie store. She spent almost a month in a specialist burns unit while doctors fought to save her sight and carried out skin grafts to repair the scarring to her face inflicted in the early hours of December 30 last year.

Emotional: Naomi Oni, 20, pictured with This Morning host Phillip Schofield earlier this month

The acid had burned her face, arm, hand and leg and left her temporarily blinded. Miss Oni has told of how she became aware of someone behind her as she walked home after getting off a bus in Dagenham, Essex, shortly after midnight. 

She was sprayed in the face with burning liquid while she was speaking on her mobile phone to her boyfriend Ato Owede, who is a 24-year-old law student.

She said:

I felt a presence behind me a few minutes away from home so I turned around, not really expecting to see anybody. But I saw a person a little taller than me. They were just staring coldly at me. I was startled so I turned away. Suddenly, from nowhere, I felt a splash on my right side and I just ran. 

‘Before I even realised, it was burning, I somehow knew it was acid’.

Horrific injuries: Naomi Oni suffered burns to her face, head, arm and leg in an apparent attack in December

Miss Oni was too afraid to return to her home after she was released from hospital and is staying with relatives.

The attack has left Miss Oni, who works at the Westfield Shopping Centre, in Stratford, East London, with psychological as well as physical scars, a friend said. ‘I had seen a picture of her face but when I saw her in the flesh she looked a lot worse,’ he added. 

‘She didn’t speak to me about the attack. I’ve noticed a bit of a change in her, she is more aware now, she is cautious about who she talks to. 'She is a bit more cautious around strangers.’

Scotland Yard yesterday repeated its appeal for witnesses to the acid attack.