Deceit

Lucy Gardner and Nicola Moors write in the Sun,

Many people bear scars from a bad relationship, but Vikki Horsman sees hers every time she looks in the mirror.

After she broke up with jealous boyfriend Mohammed Rafiq, he paid two thugs to hurl sulphuric acid in her face.

...Grieving the loss of her parents to cancer, Vikki admits she was incredibly vulnerable.

She says: “My parents and my nan died in the space of two years. With so much tragedy, Mohammed became my shoulder to cry on.

“I wasn’t looking for romance at the time, but we started a sexual relationship.

“He told me he was 45, but the age gap didn’t bother me too much. I needed an old person to rely on.”

Rafiq, soon went from the perfect gentleman to a controlling boyfriend.

Vikki, a care assistant, recalls: “He insisted on driving me everywhere which seemed sweet at first, but then he started to question where I was all the time.

“It drove me mad but I assumed he was just worried about me.”

Vikki changed her life even more for Rafiq, converting to Islam in the hope it would make him trust her.

She wore head scarves, prayed five times a day and even changed her name to Aleena.

She admits her friends thought she was “crazy”. After turning her back on her old life, Vikki thought Rafiq would finally stop questioning her behaviour, but that was not to be the case.

Vikki says: “One night I was getting ready for work when he accused me of cheating. Suddenly he lunged for my phone. I was shocked and insisted he needed to trust me.

“But nothing I said convinced him otherwise.

“The more independence I craved, the more he wanted to control me.”

...Last December, Rafiq, now 80, was jailed for 18 years for GBH with intent and perverting the course of justice.

During his trial, his true age was revealed. Vikki says: “I was in shock. Never did I think he was that old. It was scary how deceitful he’d been.”

Rafiq paid Shannon Heaps, 23, and Steven Holmes, 25, £50 to throw the acid. They were jailed for 12 and 14 years, respectively.
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