Victoria's Secret lingerie store worker was today forced to deny throwing acid in her own face to gain fame and fortune by her friend Mary Konye.
Naomi Oni, 21, was accused of setting up the attack and asking friend Mary Konye, also 21, to 'play the stalker' and throw the corrosive liquid over her.
The prosecution claim Konye donned a full niqab before following Oni as she made her way home, only to douse in sulphuric acid which has left her disfigured for life.
But the defence say it was part of an elaborate plan to become rich and famous.
That Naomi hatched a plan with Konye to pour acid over herself to improve her future prospects.
According to the Defence:
'You, Naomi 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.Miss Oni replied: 'That is very untrue.'
She absolutely refused to do that and you said that you were actually going to throw the acid yourself towards your neck area.'
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| Konye stalking Naomi the night of the acid attack |
Miss Oni described how she was oblivious to her attacker as she walked home from work, but suddenly felt a big splash on her face and ran home screaming 'acid, acid'.
Miss Oni admitted deleting her internet search history on her mobile phone a day before police were due to come and collect it.
She said she felt 'violated' and didn't want the police going through her personal data so she decided to delete the history on her iPhone.
Naomi Oni also admitted being paid £2,000 by The Sun newspaper for an interview as well as appearing on ITVs This Morning programme and being paid a sum of £1,000.
She also appeared on a German television programme and was paid around £1200 as well as being approached by the BBC for her story.
Describing how she felt after the attack, Naomi said:
Am I a bad person? Why has this happened to me? I work hard ... No one’s going to marry me now.’The court heard that she and Konye 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.Asked what she thought at the time about the threat, Miss Oni said:
'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”.’
‘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.’She also said that Katie Piper – the model who had acid thrown in her face by an accomplice of her ex-boyfriend – was her inspiration, adding:
I remember being deeply moved by her story and me and Mary discussed it.’Mary Konye posted a picture of horror film villain Freddy Krueger online and wrote, ‘She better not mess with me or I’ll make her face look like this’ before the attack, the court heard yesterday.
The case continues.
DailyMail
