Model Victim of Acid Attack

Airdate : 10/19/2009

Katie Piper used to be a model, thanks to her seductive eye and flawless skin. But today, she doesn't look that way anymore. Piper is the victim of a horrific acid attack perpetrated by a spurned boyfriend.

Gone are the looks that had launched her modeling career and TV jobs.

26-year-old Piper now wears a clear plastic mask to try to minimize the scarring from the sulfuric acid that was thrown in her face.

Katie told one interviewer, "I'll never forget the pain, the physical pain, and also hearing myself screaming and wishing the sound would stop, not realizing it was me...I could feel my face evaporating. I thought I was on fire as the acid ate my skin. I thought I was going to die on the street that day."

Piper's boyfriend, enraged that she wanted to break up, hired another man to throw the acid in her face. Both were just sentenced to life in a British prison for the attack.

Incredibly, Piper is courageously rebuilding her life and refuses to be thought of as a victim.

"I think my face is beautiful and tells a story, and I'm very happy with it," she said.

Unfortunately, the attack is not the first of its kind. In Akron, Ohio, Beckie Slabaugh had acid thrown in her face by her estranged husband. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Katie proves that courage can conquer anything. She's just completed a TV documentary about her ordeal, which she's calling My Beautiful Face.