‘I was scared my son would think I’m a monster’: Victim of mistaken identity acid attack speaks out

AN ACID attack victim who was assaulted on his doorstep in a case of mistaken identity has spoken out about his horror ordeal.

Andreas Christopheros had battery acid thrown at him by an attacker who thought he was someone else on December 9, 2014.

The father-of-one, from Cornwall in the UK, has now spoken out about the tragedy, which left him worried his two-year-old son would think he was a “monster”.

He added: “The pain is inexplicable. It’s nothing like I’ve ever felt before, you can’t even comprehend.”

The 30-year-old screamed out to his wife Pia, who was upstairs with their baby, and “ran to the kitchen and started dousing myself with as much water as I could because that was the only thing I knew to do”.

Pia, whose socks disintegrated as she ran on the acid-soaked carpet to call emergency services, described her husband’s screams as “haunting”.

Andreas fell into a coma for four days after arriving at hospital, but says the last thing he remembers is giving as much information to ambulance workers as he possibly could to help police catch his attacker, including details of a suspicious red van parked outside his house before the assault.

This information helped police catch David Phillips, who has since been jailed for life.
Phillips had decided to take matters into his own hands after a member of his family was sexually assaulted by someone he wrongly believed to live at Andreas’ address.
The man drove 483km from his home in Sussex to carry out the vicious attack in revenge.

As he was sentenced he looked over at Andreas and said: “I am very sorry.”
After being admitted to hospital, the brave dad was eventually flown to a specialist burns unit in Swansea, but days after his devastated mum and wife were told he probably wouldn’t make it through the night after the attack.

It was two months before Andreas let his young son, who was also admitted to hospital due to the strong fumes, see him because of his injuries.

He said: “Luckily, he’s amazing. My wife Pia brought him down and he looked at me and nestled into Pia’s neck. Then about two minutes later he just stuck his arms out for me and clung on to me and wouldn’t let go.

“It was the best feeling in the world. Without him I don’t know where I would be now. He’s just absolutely incredible.”