Italian model risks losing sight after 'jilted boyfriend threw acid in her face'

An Italian model and former Miss Italy contestant,risks losing her sight and will have to undergo intense plastic surgery after acid was thrown in her face, allegedly by her jilted boyfriend, in a revenge attack that has shocked the country.

Gessica Notaro, 28, a former Miss Italy contestant who worked as a dolphin and sea lion trainer in an aquarium on the Adriatic coast, was allegedly attacked by her ex-boyfriend, Jorge Edson Tavares, 29.



Tavares, a bodyguard who is originally from Cape Verde, was reportedly bitter after she broke up with him last summer following a two-year relationship, and had allegedly been stalking and threatening her for months, The Telegraph reports..

 She complained about the intimidation to police and in August a court ordered him not to approach her home.Tavares was arrested and remanded in custody on suspicion of carrying out the assault.

He allegedly lay in wait outside his former girlfriend’s apartment on the outskirts of Rimini. As she arrived at the property, he reportedly called out her name before flinging a bottle of acid in her face.

The liquid burnt her face, eyes and scalp and she was rushed to hospital in the nearby town of Cesena. “She’s not in danger of losing her life, but the damage is extensive,” said Davide Melandri, the hospital’s director. "It will be a few days before we can assess how bad it is."

A friend of the model told La Repubblica newspaper: “She was always smiling, always optimistic. Her mother is destroyed by this.”