Detectives on international manhunt for Katie Piper’s acid attacker admitting he fled the country TWO MONTHS ago after being told he was going back to prison for breaching his parole conditions – as officers warn public not to approach him
- Stefan Sylvestre was given life sentence in 2009 for attack which left former model Katie with horrific injuries
- His application for parole in 2018 was successful but he now faces more jail time after going missing
- Met has appealed for information about whereabouts of Sylvestre, who they say left the UK on August 2
- Statement said people should not approach Sylvestre and anyone with information should call the police
- Katie left fighting for her life after the attack in 2008, which was orchestrated by ex-boyfriend Daniel Lynch
Scotland Yard has issued a new photograph of Stefan Sylvestre (pictured in September 2019) as the Met Specialist Crime Command launches an investigation into his whereabouts
Police have launched an international manhunt for Katie Piper’s acid attacker and warned people not to approach the criminal who has fled overseas.
Stefan Sylvestre, from Shepherd’s Bush, west London, has been recalled to prison but Scotland Yard today revealed that he left the country more than two months ago.
The Met released a new photo of Sylvestre in an appeal for information about his whereabouts.
Sylvestre was given a life sentence in 2009 for the attack which left former model Katie, then 24, with horrific injuries.
He was jailed for life with a minimum of six years and became eligible for parole in 2015. At the time he was deemed unfit for release but a further application in 2018 was successful and he was freed aged 30, but ordered to stay away from Katie.
In 2019 he was recalled to prison over a string of car thefts but got parole again in 2020 and was released after prosecution errors came to light.
Sylvestre has now been recalled to prison once again and warned that he faces more time behind bars after going missing. But now the Met Police has revealed that the criminal left the country on Tuesday, August 2.
This evening Scotland Yard issued an appeal for information to find Sylvestre.
The statement said: ‘Officers are appealing for information to find a man wanted for recall to prison.
‘Police were notified on Friday, 23 September, that Stefan Sylvestre, 34, had been recalled to prison. His last known address was in north London.
‘Enquiries undertaken so far indicate that Sylvestre left the UK on Tuesday, 2 August. Officers from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command continue to work with partner agencies to locate and arrest him. Sylvestre should not be approached.
Katie Piper (pictured left in 2009 and right last week) was left with horrific injuries after Stefan Sylvestre, then 19, threw acid at her in 2008
‘Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call police on 999 quoting CAD6239/23Sep.
‘To give information anonymously contact the independent charity Crimestopperson 0800 555 111.’
Katie, who is 39 on Wednesday, was left fighting for her life after her obsessive ex-boyfriend Daniel Lynch arranged for then 19-year-old Sylvestre to throw sulphuric acid at her in Golders Green, north London in 2008.
Daniel Lynch was jailed for life with a minimum of 16 years for sexually assaulting Katie and telling Sylvestre to throw acid over her in 2008. He cannot be considered for release until 2025.
The pair had dated briefly before steroid-fuelled martial arts fan Lynch, who had a previous conviction for pouring boiling water over a man, became obsessively jealous.
In court, Lynch and Sylvestre were told by Judge Nicholas Browne QC that they were ‘the face of pure evil’.
When Sylvestre was released for the first time in 2018, he spent his first weekend of freedom by taking mother-of-one Danielle Burke to the four-star Angel Hotel in Guildford, Surrey.
The couple are understood to have married in a special Islamic ceremony while he was at Highpoint jail in Suffolk. He had given his consent to a relative to marry Ms Burke on his behalf without him present at the service.
Katie, who is 39 on Wednesday, was left fighting for her life after her obsessive ex-boyfriend Daniel Lynch (right) arranged for then 19-year-old Sylvestre (left) to throw sulphuric acid at her in Golders Green, north London in 2008
Since the attack Katie has rebuilt her life and this year she was awarded an OBE for charity and burns services in the New Year Honours
Sylvestre, who was born in the UK but has dual Colombian and British nationality, has previously been said to have wanted to start a new life in South America.
Ms Piper’s most recent Instagram posts have been related to mental health, especially about the importance of self-esteem. She has spoken openly about how her sense of self had been stripped away by the injuries she suffered 14 years ago.
In one post named ‘comparison is the thief to joy’ just before Sylvestre’s disappearance was revealed, Katie said: ‘I’ll find myself receiving a compliment or feeling proud, and thinking “well, it’s not as good as that thing or someone else’s achievements” and feeling down about it.
Katie was an a model and aspiring TV presenter before she had sulphuric acid thrown in her face in 2008. Pictured before the attack at age 26
‘Being simply happy and content, is what I’ll continually search for in all areas of my life. The feeling of not particularly always needing more, but to feel happy with what you have, both personally, materially etc. Does anyone else feel like this? I’m so intrigued If this is a shared sentiments.’
Model and TV presenter Katie had to wear a mask after the attack and needed 400 operations to treat her severe burns in a long and painstaking process which included pioneering surgery which completely removed the damaged skin from her face and replaced it with a substitute.
The Loose Women panellist recently explained how NHS surgeons rebuilt her face ‘from a cow’ with the use of ‘pioneering’ skin graft.
Speaking to Lorraine Kelly and her daughter, Rosie, on their What if? Podcast, she said: ‘My burn went through the muscle and down to the skeleton, so it was a very, very deep burn.
‘Because it’s a corrosive substance, you think with fire you can put it out and maybe minimise the damage, but with me all four layers of the skin were destroyed.
‘This foundation is made from collagen and elastin taken from a cow. Queue all the moody cow jokes! My face is made out of a cow,’ she laughed.
Going into detail she explained: ‘What I had to do was have all of my old face removed because the tissue was dead and would have gotten infected.’
She then detailed how her entire face was reconstructed using other parts of her body as doctors took a large skin graft from her mid back to her bottom.
In July 2019, 12 years after the attack, she had further surgery to cauterize the blood vessels in her left eye. She was again taken to hospital for emergency surgery in August this year after she was left in ‘extreme pain’ and her husband Richard Sutton noticed a black spot in her eye.
Katie was again taken to hospital for emergency surgery in August this year (pictured) after she was left in ‘extreme pain’ and her husband Richard Sutton noticed a black spot in her eye
Katie Piper shares cryptic posts about mental health as police launch hunt for her acid attacker
Last night Katie Piper shared Instagram posts about the importance of self-worth and happiness as it was revealed the career criminal who doused her in acid has gone on the run.
MailOnline can reveal that model and TV presenter Ms Piper had her family round for a Sunday roast yesterday to celebrate her birthday this week – just hours before it was revealed Stefan Sylvestre was being hunted by police.
Ms Piper’s most recent Instagram posts have been related to mental health, especially about the importance of self-esteem. She has spoken openly about how her sense of self had been stripped away by the injuries she suffered 14 years ago.
In one post named ‘comparison is the thief to joy’ just before Sylvestre’s disappearance was revealed, Katie said: ‘I’ll find myself receiving a compliment or feeling proud, and thinking “well, it’s not as good as that thing or someone else’s achievements” and feeling down about it.
‘Being simply happy and content, is what I’ll continually search for in all areas of my life. The feeling of not particularly always needing more, but to feel happy with what you have, both personally, materially etc. Does anyone else feel like this? I’m so intrigued If this is a shared sentiments’.
Katie Piper has shared Instagram posts about the importance of self-worth and happiness as her attacker fled the authorities
Katie shared details about the procedure to her cornea and praised her eye surgeon’s skills and the ‘advances in modern medicine’.
In an Instagram post she explained the procedure: ‘Yesterday I went back to @centreforsightsuk for more treatment.
‘I saw the incredible @SherazDaya, my amazing doctor who has helped me throughout the years to regain some of my sight.
‘The procedure was a PGRF treatment and involved an injection in to my eye ball (which I wasn’t looking forward to) but jokes aside am so grateful for the skill of all the team and advances in modern medicine.
‘This journey of treatment will hopefully help my cornea which I am having ongoing problems with.’
In her heart-rending victim impact statement in the aftermath of the attack, Katie said: ‘When the acid was thrown at me, it felt like I was burning in hell. It was an indescribable, unique, torturous pain.
‘I have lost my future, my career, my spirit, my body, my looks, my dignity – the list goes on.
‘All I am left with is an empty shell. A part of me has died that will never come back. This is worse than death.’
In October 2019 she bravely shared a graphic image online displaying the terrible injuries she sustained after being doused with sulphuric acid.
Captioning the photo, she wrote: ‘I remember when I didn’t want to look at anyone. I remember when I didn’t want anyone to look at me. I remember when I was scared of people, scared of men.
‘I remember when I was scared of the world.
‘I remember when opening up to people and talking about my trauma and psychological damage just wasn’t possibly.’
Since the ordeal Katie has rebuilt her life, featuring on numerous TV shows, including a 2009 documentary about the impact of the attack.
She chose to give up her anonymity in order to increase awareness about burn victims through the Channel 4 documentary Katie: My Beautiful Face, which gained more than 3.3 million views.
She also took part in the hit BBC show Strictly Come Dancing in 2018.
Katie revealed that she was subjected to callous abuse during her time on the show.
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, she said: ‘I got some really horrible abuse, it was awful. I was told ‘You look like a monster’ by someone one night. It’s so cruel. Then someone else said, ‘Thank goodness for make-up.’
The mother-of-two said another mocked the fact she is 75 per cent blind in one eye. ‘Someone said to me, ‘Are you sure you’re not blind in both eyes, not just one? Because you definitely dance like you are.’
‘These people seem to forget I’m a human. I just wanted to scream back, ‘I know I can’t dance!’ ‘
While she found the attacks distressing, the 35-year-old said she enjoyed her time on the show and added: ‘I am just so glad to be alive.’
In 2009, when she was still in the early stages of recovery, she launched the Katie Piper Foundation to raise awareness for other victims of burns and other disfigurement attacks and injuries.
The charity also campaigns for the specialist treatment Piper received, such as the after-care scheme undertaken in France, to be more widely available to patients in Britain.
This year she was awarded an OBE for charity and burns services in the New Year Honours.
The mother-of-two described it as ‘a wonderful privilege’ to receive an OBE from Princess Anne at Windsor Castle in February.
When asked how she continues to inspire positivity in people who have experienced life-changing burns and injuries, she said: ‘To be truthful, I don’t always maintain a positive outlook.
‘It’s about surrendering to that as a normal part of life, the highs and the lows, and being able to surrender to the lows make them fewer and farther between.
Since the ordeal Katie has rebuilt her life, featuring on numerous TV shows, including a 2009 documentary about the impact of the attack. She also featured on the hit BBC show Strictly Come Dancing in 2018 (pictured)
‘But I suppose really I would describe myself really as somebody that does celebrate life, because I think we’ve all experienced the fragility of life.
‘That was why I wanted to set the charity up, because after a burn injury, we have our lives saved by the amazing NHS, but it’s the quality of life afterwards and going back into society with a visible difference that’s really difficult, and it’s not something that we can do alone.’
She added: ‘Trauma is part of life, but it doesn’t have to be a life sentence. With the support of a charity or organisation it’s a lot easier to re-integrate back into society and what you knew as normal because you now have a new normal.’
The best-selling author, whose latest self-help book is titled A Little Bit Of Faith, said her recovery was heavily influenced by finding hope through Christianity.
‘It’s something that I came to later in life, in my 20s, it was part of my own recovery,’ she explained. ‘In my book, I suppose faith is the key word – holding on to hope, holding on to faith.
‘For everyone, that doesn’t look like religion, it might be spirituality, you might not put a label on it. But if we all have something that feels bigger than us and bigger than our problems I think that can help us all remain optimistic.’
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