14 DAY TRIAL // Victoria's Secret worker Naomi Oni's acid attack might have been self-inflicted, police reports reveal. Meanwhile, police have arrested two people in connection to Oni's case.
Huffington Post writes that a woman and a man have been arrested for the vicious attack that has left Oni's face, arm, leg and head burnt. She has been hospitalized for a month, suffering partial blindness.
The 20-year-old woman from East London was allegedly assaulted on the street, as she was walking to her residence in Dagenham, on December 30, 2012.
She has told investigators that an unidentified Islamic woman, wearing a niqab, poured acid on her face, without previous provocation.
A 21-year-old woman was arrested on February 22 and a 28-year-old man was charged on February 24, for their involvement in the attack. Their identities are not known at this point, and they have been released on bond.
Police are still searching for a male witness who boarded the Route 368 Bus at the Barking railway station, at 12.40am, the time of the assault. The black man, aged between 20 and 30 years old, was seen getting off at Lodge Avenue.
A search of Oni's laptop computer points investigators into a different direction, Daily Mail indicates. A browser history review reveals that the victim researched Katie Piper's acid attack before her alleged assault.
The model was the target of a vicious attack by her ex-boyfriend, who burned her with sulphuric acid in 2008.
Oni's family dismiss the allegations as “crazy,” while her boyfriend blames police for “concentrating on the wrong things” and “just coming to a silly conclusion.”
“The police haven't been able to find anyone. They even asked my aunt if I had done it to myself, which really upset me. Why would anyone do this to themselves?,” she tells reporters.
According to a friend, Sheila Maclean, she was simply watching a documentary on Piper because she wanted to learn about make-up techniques.
Meanwhile, investigators “continue to follow a number of lines of inquiry,” a source in the Metropolitan police says.