Boyfriend, 80, Angry Over Break Up, Paid Two Men To Pour Sulphuric Acid On Ex, Scarring Her For Life [Graphic Images]
Breaking up with her 80-year-old boyfriend left Vikki Horsman, 21, scarred for life after he became irate and paid two men to pour sulphuric acid on her, according to the Daily Mirror.
“The attack has completely changed my life. I’m scarred for life and the mental scars may never go,” said the care assistant from Smethwick, West Midlands, who met her vindictive ex-boyfriend four years through her 26-year-old half-sister Ceri Parkes.
Vikki Horsman speaks out after Mohammed Rafiq paid thugs to throw acid in her face http://t.co/fThVpdRLiY
— Phanendra Deka (@DhrubRaaj) July 22, 2015
Before meeting Mohammed Rafiq, Horsman had suffered the loss of her parents as well as her grandmother. Filled with great sorrow, her half-sister introduced her to Rafiq, who became her support system.
“I was particularly vulnerable having just lost both my parents and my nana in a very short space of time,” said Horsman. “With so much tragedy in my life, Mohammed became my shoulder to cry on.”
“I wasn’t looking for romance, but we started a sexual relationship. He told me he was 45-years-old, but the age gap didn’t bother me too much.”
However, several years into the relationship, Horsman stated that he was controlling and began to show signs of jealousy by accusing her of cheating on him with other men.
“He questioned where I was all the time and he never trusted me,” said Hors man. “He even persuaded me to convert to Islam. Although hesitant at first, I agreed in the blind hope it would make him trust me.”
“I started praying five times a day, wearing head scarves and even changed my name to Aleena.”
Although she did whatever it took to please her boyfriend, it all became too much to handle when she caught him rummaging through her personal belongings. She immediately ended their relationship, but agreed to remain friends, according to BBC News.
Woman scarred for life after ex paid thugs to throw acid over her relives horrific attack http://t.co/wyC9qQBmVE pic.twitter.com/oRlqUFmG15
— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) July 23, 2015
However, the break up angered the 80-year-old, and he wanted revenge.
In April of last year, Horsman’s life would be forever changed as the man who was there for her during her darkest times hired two men to pour sulphuric acid on her, attempting to kill her but she survived the ordeal.
“Me and Mohammed were having a cup of tea at Kerry’s house, our mutual friend. The doorbell rang and I answered,” Horsman recalled the day her boyfriend set her to be doused in acid.
“He called my name, telling me I had a visitor. I went to the door to find a man wearing a black bandana over his face and clutching a plastic bottle filled with black liquid.
“Before I could react, I felt the hot liquid hit me in my face.
“Pain seared through my upper body and instantly my lips blistered.”
“Screaming in agony, I fled to the kitchen to douse my skin in water. I could smell my own flesh burning and, in the panic, I feared that I was about to die,” she continued.
“I was so hysterical, I could barely tell the emergency services my name so Mohammed took over.
“Minutes later, paramedics arrived and rushed me to hospital, pumping me full of morphine in the ambulance.”
When Horsman arrived at the hospital, doctors had to put her in a medically induced coma to allow her body recover from the 25 percent burns she had sustained on her face, neck, and chest.
In December 2014, Rafiq was arrested and charged with “masterminding the horrific attack” and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The two men — Shannon Heaps, 23, and Steven Holmes, 25 — who were paid to pour acid on Vikki Horsman as she answered the door received 14 years in prison.
[Image courtesy of European Parliament/ Flickr / Creative Commons]
