My face was melting
Victim recalls agony of acid attack as her ex-boyfriend is locked up for life
A JEALOUS amateur boxer has been jailed for life for arranging an acid attack on his ex- girlfriend i n an attempt to ruin her looks.
Smoke poured from beautician Adele Bellis’s flesh after a thug hired by Anthony Riley threw sulphuric acid over her at a bus stop.
Describing the horrific attack in which her right ear was burnt away, Miss Bellis, 23, told a court: ‘At first I thought it was water, but then I could feel burning and I was just running around screaming. My face was melting and I knew I’d lost my ear.’
She was also left permanently scarred and partially bald.
The attack was the culmination of a campaign of abuse by Riley, 26, who was consumed with jealousy and wanted to disfigure her so no other man would be attracted to her after the end of their seven-year onoff relationship.
Four months before the acid attack, the small-time drug dealer paid heroin addict Leon Thompson, 39, to try to disfigure Miss Bellis by slashing her in the mouth with a craft knife.
Riley, who tested the acid that was used by dipping a live mouse into a jar of it and laughing as it died in agony, showed no emotion as he was jailed at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday, appearing via a video link from Chelmsford Prison in Essex.
But he later appeared to grin and yawned as two other men were sentenced for helping in the attack.
Judge John Devaux said he would spend at least 13 years behind bars
‘I have very few tears left’
before being considered for parole. He was found guilty of conspiracy to apply a corrosive liquid and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.
Cannabis user Jason Harrison, 27, of Lowestoft, who carried out the acid attack for £500, was earlier jailed for a discounted four years, partly due to his guilty plea and evidence he gave for the prosecution.
Thompson, who was caught with acid in his flat in Lowestoft, was jailed for 15 years for plotting the acid attack and carrying out the knife attack.
Riley’s ‘lieutenant and enforcer’ Daniel Marshall, 39, of Haverhill, Suffolk, was jailed for six years for conspiracy to apply a corrosive l i quid and a consecutive year for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Speaking on the steps of the court, Miss Bellis, of Lowestoft, Suffolk, said: ‘No prison sentence can ever make up for what Anthony Riley did to me. I will continue to have to live with the physical and emotional scars and now face years of treatment ahead of me.’
She added: ‘I find it difficult to put into words the pain I have suffered – I have very few tears left.’
Miss Bellis was in hospital for two months after the attack near her home i n August l ast year. She has had skin grafts and facial reconstruction surgery. Describing Riley as ‘ sick’, she said she no l onger worked or socialised, and could not imagine forming a new relationship.
The court heard how Riley had punched her i n separate attacks and had been given a restraining order after being convicted of harassing her, but she kept returning to him.
Their relationship finally ended after he posted ‘revenge porn’ of the pair having sex on Facebook in an attempt to cause her ‘complete and utter shame and humiliation’.