Katie Piper: Manhunt for TV star’s acid attacker who fled after recall to prison

A manhunt is underway for the man who threw acid over TV presenter Katie Piper after he was recalled to prison for breaching his licence.

Police are searching for Stefan Sylvestre, who attacked the model and activist in 2008 by throwing sulphuric acid in her face in Golders Green Road, Barnet, north London.

Sylvestre, who was an accomplice of Daniel Lynch, Piper’s ex-boyfriend, carried out the attack on March 31, leaving her with agonising burns and blindness in her left eye.

The 38-year-old almost lost her life and spent months in intensive care including in an induced coma, while she underwent multiple extreme facial reconstruction surgeries.

Lynch, who had also previously sexually assaulted and attacked Piper, was given two life sentences and told he would serve 16 years behind bars at a minimum.

While Sylvestre received a life sentence with a minimum term of six years, before he was approved for release on parole in 2018.

Piper, who was entitled to anonymity due to the sexual nature of the attack, waived her right to remain unidentified in order to raise awareness and campaign for acid and burn victims.

She has since taken part in the 2009 Channel 4 documentary Katie: My Beautiful Face; released a bestselling autobiography; and launched the Katie Piper Foundation - a charity she founded to help victims of burns and other disfigurement injuries.

In 2018 she appeared on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing and in 2021, Piper joined the Loose Women panel.

A Probation Service spokesperson said: "We are urgently working with the police to bring the offender back to prison, where he’ll face longer behind bars."

Ms Piper’s spokesperson has been contacted for comment.