Acid Attack Victim Speaks Out

Model disfigured by W12 pair to appear in Channel 4 documentary

A woman who was raped and had acid thrown in her face by two men from Shepherd's Bush will tell her story on a Channel 4 programme later this month.

Former model and TV presenter Katie Piper was raped by 33-year-old Daniel Lynch of Becklow Gardens, Shepherd's Bush and then attacked with acid by accomplice 20-year-old Stefan Sylvestre of Chaplain House, Australia Rd, Shepherd's Bush in March 2008. Both men are now in jail.

But Piper, who has been left with life-long injuries, has now waived her anonymity to appear in a Cutting Edge documentary about her ordeal.

The 26-year-old has had to undergo more than 30 operations, including pioneering surgery at Chelsea and Westminster hospital to try and rebuild her face.

Wearing a plastic mask, she told the News of the World: “Both of the attacks changed my life. Initially, after the rape, I felt like they took away my dignity, my right to be me, my soul, my confidence, and the acid attack, the acid maimed me, physically took away the face I was born with, the genetics. They took away a part of me that will never return.”

She said the acid damaged her eyes, throat, oesophagus, ears, neck, wrists, hands and arms. Because of the damage to her oesophagus, Piper has trouble eating: "‘I’m usually sick several times throughout a meal and prefer to eat alone," she told the Daily Mail.

Piper's ordeal began in March of last year when she arranged to meet her then-boyfriend, Daniel Lynch, who she had met via Facebook, at the Ramada Jarvis in Bayswater Road . It was here that he raped her, beat her and kept her captive for eight hours.

A few days later, on her way to an internet cafe in Golders Green, she was approached by Lynch's accomplice Stefan Sylvestre, who threw a cup full of sulphuric acid into her face.

The former model was left with third-degree burns to her face, upper body and hands and was blinded in one eye.

Piper says she is determined not to let what happened to her destroy her life.

My Beautiful Face will be screened on Channel 4 at 9pm on Thursday, October 29.

18 October 2009