Johannesburg - Her nightmare continues and she is desperate. As we enter the second day of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign, Ines Antonio, the 22-year-old woman burnt with battery acid, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, is living in terror as he continues to bombard her with hate SMSes, threatening to rape and kill her and feed her to the animals in the Kruger National Park.
A distraught Antonio could barely speak to The Star on Wednesday morning as she related living in fear and not believing the police were taking the case seriously enough.
“In one night alone, I got about 50 threatening SMSes,” she said.
She said they broke up almost four years ago when she fell pregnant.
“I have only seen him a few times since then. He has not paid maintenance, but we were not fighting.
“I just didn’t see him any more,” she said from her hospital bed.
On the morning of November 3, she was on her way to the shops before writing one of her matric exams. The man arrived unannounced and grabbed her daughter, putting her in his car.
He tried to get her in as well, but she refused. He then said he had something in his boot for the child.
“I followed him to the boot and he took out the acid and started throwing it all over me. It was completely unexpected,” she said.
Antonio was admitted to the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital where she was in intensive care for a week. She is now in the burns unit at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital where she is recovering.
“I am slowly getting better, though I will always be scarred, but I know he will continue tormenting me unless he is arrested. He said that if he couldn’t have me, no one would. He will torment me for the rest of my life,” she said.
In his last SMSes, he said he would not get caught because the police were “corrupt” and he would use his disability (one leg is shorter that the other) to get off.
Antonio has no family. Her child is in the care of her landlady. She was working part-time at a salon.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said the case was still under investigation.
“The suspect has disappeared from his last known address and we believe he is in Durban.
“We are aware of the SMSes and will be adding a charge of intimidation,” he said.
The man didn’t answer his phone when The Star called him on Wednesday morning.
The Star