'Burn in hell': Acid attack victim's message to ex-girlfriend

Daniel Rotariu and girlfriend Annie Anna Catanga in Leicester in Britain. Rotariu was attacked by a former girlfriend Katie Leong who threw acid on his face picture. Photo / Daniel Rotariu

A man whose face was melted off with acid by his ex-girlfriend has said he believes his attacker will "burn in hell" because she "doesn't have a soul".

Daniel Rotariu, 31, had 96 per cent pure sulphuric acid poured over him by Katy Leong while he slept in their Leicester home in July 2016, after she initially tested it on a sausage.

After being left severely disfigured, traumatised and suicidal, Rotariu is now rebuilding his life with his new girlfriend, support worker Anna Catanga.

In an interview on Good Morning Britain, presenter Piers Morgan said: "What do you feel about the person who did this to you - your former girlfriend?"

Rotariu said: "She is going to burn in hell, I think. She doesn't have a soul.

"And I have no feelings for her."

Rotariu met his new girlfriend at a support centre that he was attending. Photo / Anna Catanga

Leong, who received a life sentence for attempted murder, had TV presenter Katie Piper's autobiography Beautiful - detailing the harrowing rape and acid attack suffered by the former model in 2008 - in her bedroom.

In a separate interview with the couple together, Catanga said: "Daniel is an amazing person. And he's so clever, and had training, and funny - it was easy to fall in love with him.

"The scars are not meaning anything to me because he's a great man and I'm so happy to be with him.

"He just changed my life as well. It was a destiny, I think, that we have met. We get on so much with each other.

"Right from the first day, I felt for him so much.

"We ended up in a relationship and now we are living happily together."

Rotariu is now calling on the Government to regulate sales of corrosive liquids, as he rebuilds his life with a new lover after the incident that leaves him with nightly terrors.

Rotariu disfigured appearance left him suicidal, but when he was at his lowest ebb he met mother-of-one Catanga, who worked at the support centre he had recently started to attend.

She looked past his scarring, quit her job to avoid a conflict of interest and the pair are already living together.

Rotariu wants the Government to regulate the sale of acid following the new wave of attacks and also hand out harsher punishments for acid attackers.

He said: "If you destroy and take somebody's life - actually rip his future - his dreams, all his plans, I think they should also not have a life.

"Seventeen years - I don't think it's enough."

He told the Sunday Mirror: "Acid attacks scar victims for life, not only on the outside but deep inside. Something has to change to stop these evil people from accessing their weapon.

"Sulphuric acid shouldn't be sold to the public without a licence. It's so easy to buy, it's scandalous. How many lives need to be ruined before it's banned?"

Acid attacks have increased in Britain by 50 per cent in the last 12 months, with 1375 recorded in Britain since 2015, although the real figure is believed to be even higher.

His interview comes as a teenager was charged with 15 offences after a 90-minute moped spree left five people injured in east London earlier this week.

The youngster is facing five counts of attempted GBH with intent and one count of GBH with intent.

He has also been charged with three counts of robbery, four counts of attempted robbery, one count of possession of an item to discharge a noxious substance and one count of handling stolen goods as is due in court tomorrow.

Rotariu is full of sympathy for those injured in the attacks, and still wakes up every night in terror, remembering the effects of the assault on him.

He said to the Mirror: "I didn't know if it was a dream. The shock, the pain, that burning sensation. I can't describe it. I leapt up, then I felt in my mouth that it was acid, not water. My right eye became foggy."

When the acid was poured over his face, chest, arms and hands, Rotariu thought it was boiling water.

Leong's trial heard how Rotariu tried to protect his face with his hands, but his attacker pulled them away.

In his initial police interview Rotariu described having an argument with Leong when he got home from work, telling officers he was upset and told her to leave him alone.

He went to bed at about 8pm and woke up as Leong took the cover off his bed and splashed him with a liquid.

Katie Piper, who was in attack with acid in 2008, penned an autobiography, a copy of which was found in Leong's bedroom. Photo / Katie Piper Foundation

British Home Secretary Amber Rudd has spoken out against the recent attacks, and declared it should not just be the victims serving "life sentences".

She wrote in the Sunday Times: "Today I am announcing an action plan to tackle acid attacks. It will include a wide-ranging review of the law enforcement and criminal justice response, of existing legislation, of access to harmful products and of the support offered to victims."

Charity campaigner Katie Piper, who has appeared on New Zealand screens hosting Bodyshockers , survived an acid attack which left her facially disfigured in 2008.

Piper founded her own charity to help people living with burns and scars and was awarded Woman of the Year award.

In 2012 she released an autobiography about her life to date entitled Beautiful.