An aspiring model and TV presenter who suffered horrific injuries after acid was thrown in her face felt like she had been sentenced to a plight 'worse than death', a court today heard.
The 25-year-old was left partially blind in one eye, suffered third-degree burns and had to be fed through a plastic tube after a cup of sulphuric acid was emptied on her.
London's Wood Green Crown Court heard how martial arts expert Daniel Lynch, 33, had beaten up and raped the woman in a hotel room last year, just weeks after meeting her on Facebook.
Several days after the attack he organised for another man, Stefan Sylvestre, 20, to throw acid in her face as she walked down a north London high street.
Lynch was today sentenced to life imprisonment, at London's Wood Green Crown Court.
Stefan Sylvestre, 20, who threw the acid, was also given a life sentence.
Passing sentence, Judge Nicholas Browne QC said: '(The victim) had a face of pure beauty. You, Danny Lynch and Stefan Sylvestre, represent the face of pure evil. The facts of this case are chilling and shocking.
'You planned and then executed an act of pure, calculated and deliberate evil.
'You decided to wreck the victim's life by thrusting a full container of sulphuric acid straight into her face from point- blank range.'
A victim impact statement was read to the court in which the woman said the attacks had destroyed her life.
So far she has had more than 30 operations for her injuries and faces a further two years of surgery.
The statement read: 'There are not enough words descriptive enough in the English language to describe how I felt after both of the evil attacks upon me.
'I am aware that there is a crime greater than that which has been afflicted upon me and that is murder. From my perspective as the victim of these monstrous attacks my personal suffering is in fact worse.
'I have lost my future, my career, my spirit, my body, my looks, my dignity, the list goes on. All I am left with is an empty shell.
'A part of me has died and that will never return. This is worse than death.
'Being beaten, raped and mutilated with acid has left me feeling like a living corpse. Being raped had a devastating affect on me, it left me numb and empty, it made me loathe myself with feelings of disgust and humiliation.'
She added: 'The ongoing mental and physical torture I have been put through has crushed me and left me a broken woman.
'Before the attacks I was affectionate, outgoing, happy and confident. I am now an empty shell of myself and the very thought of intimacy now makes me feel physically sick and unable to cope with displays of affection from my own family.
'It's an awful feeling to be unable to hug your own parents without breaking down in fits of extreme emotion and uncontrolled flashbacks of the horrific violation I suffered.'
A jury at the court found Lynch guilty in March of rape. Lynch, of Becklow Gardens, Shepherds Bush, west London, admitted actual bodily harm and was found guilty of grievous bodily harm at previous hearings.
Sylvestre, of Shepherds Bush, pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm for the attack at an earlier hearing.
The two men stared at the floor as the harrowing testimony was read to the hushed courtroom.
Richard Milne, prosecuting, said the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was an aspiring model with a promising television career ahead of her.
Lynch, she said, had contacted her on networking website Facebook and the pair were in a relationship for around two weeks prior to the hotel room rape.
She was attacked at the Ramada hotel in Bayswater in the early hours of March 28 last year after his violent temper and mood swings sparked an earlier row.
Fuelled by steroids and realising the relationship was breaking down, Lynch pushed the woman against a door and she hit her head on a fire exit sign.
Blood poured from her head but he refused her pleas to go to hospital and continued attacking her before forcing her on to the bed and raping her.
The woman told police later that she feared for her life and was too scared to report the attack because of his threats.
Once home her flatmates took her to hospital for treatment.
Over the following days she remained holed up, too frightened to go out, while Lynch bombarded her with telephone calls and text messages.
She told him she did not want to see or speak to him but he eventually persuaded her to leave the flat on March 31.
As she walked along Golders Green Road, Sylvestre hurled sulphuric acid in her face on the instructions of Lynch.
