Justice For Naomi Oni: A Jealous University Student Who Threw Sulphuric Acid Over Her Friend Has Been Caught,Mary Konye Disguised Herself In An Islam Veil.

Remember Ms Naomi Oni? The Nigerian girl that got attacked on her way back from work at her house in Dagenham, London....Read the story- A jealous university student threw sulphuric acid over her friend in an attack inspired by the horrific assault on Katie Piper, a court today heard.Mary Konye, 21, disguised herself in an Islamic veil showing only her eyes, and followed Naomi Oni home in East London before allegedly dousing her in the corrosive acid.Ms Oni, 21, who worked at Victoria’s Secret lingerie shop, suffered horrific burns on her face and chest, lost her hair and eyelashes and was left scarred for life in the alleged attack on December 30 2012.

Snaresbrook Crown Court heard that Konye, who was studying business and finance at Hertfordshire University, had been close friends with Ms Oni since secondary school.

But she was envious of the shop worker’s good looks, and the pair had rowed in the past leading Konye to attack her with acid previously, it is alleged.Konye knew Ms Oni had been deeply 'moved' by Katie Piper, a model and TV presenter who was badly scarred and left blind in one eye after she was attacked with acid in an ambush arranged by her ex-boyfriend, Daniel Lynch. Read more after the cut.
Knowing this, Konye decided to launch the copycat attack, jurors were told.

The court heard Ms Oni left work at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford, East London, at around 11.30pm with several colleagues.

But she was oblivious to the fact she was being closely followed by Konye wearing a full niqab, a hooded black coat, gloves and a grey bag, jurors heard.

CCTV showed the university student had 'lingered waiting to see the victim' at Stratford and 'tailed' her home always making sure to keep a few steps behind her, the court heard.

On the phone to her boyfriend throughout the journey, she stopped off at takeaway to pick up some food and got the 368 bus to her house.

Unaware she was being followed, she got off the bus at Lodge Avenue, a few hundred yards away from her house.

But she suddenly became aware of a presence behind her and spun around to see someone in a niqab who lobbed a glass of acid at her.

Gareth Patterson, prosecuting, told jurors that Konye had threatened to attack Ms Oni with acid on another occasion after the pair rowed.
He said: 'Naomi will tell you about her friendship with the defendant.

'In particular she will tell you how in the past they had an up and down relationship and how the defendant had admitted to her that on one occasion in anger she threatened to throw acid at Naomi.

'There was a reason why the defendant would have chosen to make such an unusual sort of threat.

'In the past the two of them had discussed a young woman called Katie Piper.

'She was a woman who had acid thrown at her and that attack had been reported in the media.

'Naomi and the defendant had discussed this and it appears that the defendant knew that Naomi had been particularly moved by Katie Piper’s ordeal.

'Naomi stated that she and the defendant had fallen out in the past and says that there was an occasion during a row when she called the defendant ugly.

Konye, who was arrested on February 22 last year, denied carrying out the attack or ever threatening to throw acid at Naomi.

Jurors were told there is mobile phone evidence placing Konye on the same bus as Ms Oni.

Wearing her long hair down and a purple top and black cardigan, Konye, of Canning Town, East London, sat in the dock passively and repeatedly stared at the floor during the hearing.

She denies throwing or casting a corrosive fluid with intent to burn, maim, disfigure, disable or do grievous bodily harm.