Photo: Left -Mary Konye/ Right- Naomi Oni
A Victoria's Secret worker who had acid hurled in her face said her jealous childhood friend who attacked her spent years trying to emulate her looks.
Naomi Oni said Mary Konye was 'obsessed' with her, attempting to steal her boyfriend before deciding to 'destroy her'.
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Miss Oni, 21, said Konye - who will be sentenced next month after being found guilty of the acid attack at Snaresbrook Crown Court last week - copied her clothes and hairstyle, even mimicking the way she spoke, her laugh and walk.
She told The Sun: 'If I wrote texts, spoke, laughed or walked in a certain way, she'd do that too. And she'd say "I look just like you, don't I?"
'If police hadn't caught her, I'm sure she would have gone on to kill.' On December 30, 2012 Konye, also 21, disguised herself in a Muslim veil to stalk her friend as she left the Victoria's Secret store in Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, east London, where she worked.
Shortly before Miss Oni reached her home in Dagenham, Essex, Konye doused her with concentrated sulphuric acid, leaving her scarred for life.
CCTV footage obtained by police after the attack showed Konye in a niqab following her as she left at the lingerie shop at around 11.30pm.
Konye faces jail after she was found guilty of the acid attack at Snaresbrook Crown Court last week.
Miss Oni suffered serious burns to her face and chest, lost her hair and eyelashes, and required skin graft surgery to cover the burns.
Miss Konye's obsession with her victim began when the friends were 11 years old.
But in April 2011 they fell out after Miss Oni discovered Konye was trying to steal her boyfriend, sending him anonymous texts claiming Miss Oni was sleeping with other men.
Miss Oni said: 'She had copied my entire life - now she wanted my boyfriend.'
Giving evidence in court Miss Oni described how, on her way home, she got off at her bus stop in Dagenham and felt a ‘presence’ before turning to see someone in a niqab.
She then felt a ‘massive splash’ as the acid was thrown at her, disfiguring her face, dissolving her hair and eyelashes and burning her tongue as she screamed.
Describing how she felt after the attack, she said: ‘Am I a bad person? Why has this happened to me? I work hard ... No one’s going to marry me now.’
Miss Oni also revealed that when she told her alleged attacker what had happened, her friend texted back: ‘OMG. Can’t believe it.’
She also cried down the phone to Konye, who offered her support.
Miss Oni said in court: ‘I just had my bandages removed and it was the first time I saw my face after surgery and I broke down and I had spoken to Mary that night and I was crying on the phone to her and she was on the phone to me telling me, “don’t worry, you’ll be OK”.’
She added: ‘I was still on the phone to my boyfriend and I felt a presence. I turned to my left and I saw someone and a black abaya [cloak] or a black niqab.
‘I remember it facing me, staring. A presence directly looking at me. All I could see was eyes.’
She then said she felt the splash as the acid was thrown in her face and ran home shouting ‘acid, acid’.
She said: ‘I immediately felt that someone was trying to kill me and so my instinct was to run as fast as I could to get home.
‘I felt, it wasn’t burning, it was a dissolving type of sensation. It was on my face and I remember, as I had my mouth open screaming, it burnt my tongue.’
Mary Konye was born on 20 February 1992 in Newham, east London. Her father died when she was just two leaving her mother a single parent looking after her only child.
She gained eight GCSEs before studying for A-Levels in Sociology, Media, Business and Psychology at St Angela's Ursuline School, a Catholic secondary school for girls in Forest Gate.
She spent another year at Southgate College doing A-Level retakes before winning a place at the University of Hertfordshire, studied accounting and finance in business.
Konye held down jobs in retail at New Look, Forever 21 and Next while studying.
She was one term and an exam away from earning a BA honours degree when she was arrested last April for throwing acid over Miss Oni.
When she first appeared in court last May she applied on bail on the basis she was a regular churchgoer.
Naomi Oni was born just nine days earlier than Konye on 11 February 1992 and had a far less turbulent childhood than her friend.
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Very sad!
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