Man Attacked Ex With Acid So Corrosive It Dissolved Paint

After his girlfriend broke up with him, a British medical student for weeks plotted his revenge. That included making a list of supplies, from a "fat suit," and "black morph suit" to a "wig" and "perfume," per the BBC. Finally, six weeks after the split, 25-year-old Milad Rouf traveled from his home in Cardiff to London and on to Brighton, where he showed up at his ex's door—in the fat suit, morph suit (a spandex suit that covers the body head to toe), sunglasses, and a face visor—and threw acid in her face, per the Guardian. Rym Alaoui, a junior doctor in her 20s who'd studied medicine with Rouf at Cardiff University before ending the brief relationship and moving to Brighton, was left debilitated and blind in her right eye as a result of the May 20 attack.

"I have had five surgeries" and will likely have more, she told Lewes Crown Court in a statement. Yet "I am unable to move my neck and close my eyelids" or "to attend work or live my life." She described the psychological effects as "colossal," adding of Rouf, "I cannot understand what was in his mind." In sentencing Rouf on Thursday to 11 years in prison with a four-year extended licence to be served in the community, Judge Christine Laing QC said he'd been motivated by nothing more than "simple jealousy and anger at being rejected," per the Guardian. "You knew full well what you were doing was wrong and you tried to evade responsibility for it to continue to pursue your medical career."

"Using padded clothing and makeup, he made himself appear to be a black woman of large build," said prosecutor Flora Page. Alaoui hadn't recognized Rouf as he handed her a note, then threw sulphuric acid in her face as she read it. "The acid was so concentrated it scorched the paintwork off Alaoui's front door," per the Guardian. Rouf pleaded guilty to applying a corrosive fluid with intent in August after authorities found the list of items for his disguise in his home, per the BBC. Laing applied an extended sentence, noting he was a danger to women and had not shown "any real remorse." (More acid attack stories.)