HEAVILY wrapped in winter clothes with only her two eyes exposed, a dis-tressed Shen Peifang edged away from a local court last Friday, assisted by her parents, before a hearing began on her disfigurement case.

Having planned to participate in the hearing, she finally quit the court before it started, unwilling to confront the former colleague accused of pouring a bottle of acid over her two days before her wedding last May. The acid ruined her face and caused severe damage to her neck and limbs.

The 24-year-old woman still wore her wedding ring, although the ceremony had become a source of undying anguished regret.

Unwanted messages

Shen fell in love with Fan Jiayong, a driver working in the same company, and the two had planned to marry. However, when they were immersed in preparations for their marriage, they never imagined the tragedy that was about to befall them.

At the end of 2002, Fan received a short message on his mobile phone from Shi Yufang, the company's cashier, in which Shi expressed her love for Fan.

"I did not know they (Shen and Fan) were lovers at that time," Shi said at the hearing held at Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court.

Fan did not respond. In Shi's eyes, this was not necessarily a particularly bad sign.

"He did not refuse at least, which gave me a little hope," said Shi, 27.

From then on, Shi started to send short messages to Fan frequently and even called him.

Seeing that silence was not working, the young man told Shi directly that he and Shen were preparing to marry.

Fan's frankness did not serve its purpose, however, and Shi continued to send messages, but the content had shifted from love to suicide threats by February, 2003. The daily harassment forced Fan to switch off his mobile phones from time to time.

Simultaneously, Fan and Shen were busy with arrangements for their wedding, to be held on May 24. In March, the two registered their marriage, and Shen also reserved a wedding gown for herself.

Twisted love

Shi's hopes gradually turned to despair, twisting ultimately into hate and jealousy.

She kept on sending messages, now threatening to disfigure the bride-to-be.

"I just wanted to draw his attention," she said.

It seemed to have worked. "He would give me a look when passing me," Shi said. "In the past, he just ignored me."

In the court, prosecutors presented messages sent from Shi to Fan.

As the evidence showed, on April 16, a message from Shi read: "In cases of intentional crimes which lead to another's blindness, deafness or disfigurement, a person is usually sentenced to death. However, I have resolved myself, and I will not give up without reaching my goal."

On April 22, she wrote a message saying: "I will do just as I said I would."

Shi told Fan the next day that one of her friends could provide her with what she wanted to carry out her threat.

On April 24, Fan got a message saying: "You cannot always be at her elbow, and I will impress you deeply (with my act)."

Fan and Shen continued to tolerate Shi's threats. They even went to Shi's home and asked Shi's parents to soothe her.

"We endeavoured to persuade her not to be foolish, and she told us that she had put such thoughts aside," Shi's father said in a later police interview.

However, sometime later, the parents found that their daughter just turned a deaf ear to them.

"My father also tried to introduce some young men to me, yet I could not forget Fan," Shi said.

"I tried to drag myself out of the confusion, but I failed. Every night, I could not help crying when I thought of him, and he dominated my life."

Approaching horror

With Fan and Shen's wedding ceremony approaching, Shi found herself writing on a bed of thorns.

Shi finally called her friend, a worker in a local chemical company. She said that she needed some vitriol to marinate seeds and on May 21, three days before the wedding, she managed to get hold of a bottle.

"I wanted to leave a deep impression on Fan, no matter whether good or evil," she said.

On the afternoon of May 22, she poured half a litre of vitriol into a flask and entered Shen's office.

"She called me by name, and I raised my head," Shen recalled later. "Then she flung something at me, and I immediately felt terrible pain everywhere."

Shi told other employees on the spot that it was acid she had thrown and returned to her office.

Soon afterwards, Fan, who was driving outside at the time, received a message from Shi which read: "She is in trouble."

"I knew something was wrong, and rushed back," Fan told the police. "A little time later I received a second message. It was Shi saying she hoped I would blame her severely."

Upon seeing Fan carrying Shen outside, Shi realized she had done something wrong.

"He was boiling and was about to hit me," Shi said. "When I saw them heading off to hospital, I realized how foolish I had been."

Medical examination found that more than 12 per cent of Shen's skin had received second or third degree burns, which are categorized as serious injuries.

Back at home, Fan used newspapers to cover all the mirrors in the house.

"No one dared to let her look into a mirrors, how could she accept that?" he said.

In court, Shen's lawyer, Li Xiaohua, proposed compensation of more than 1.37 million yuan (US$165,600) from the defendant. "This includes money for support, medical expenses, plastic surgery costs in the future, spiritual compensation and some other fees," Li said.

"It is too much for the family to bear, and we are not asking anything from them. They now lack the money even for urgent medical treatment. We hope that a hospital somewhere can lend a hand."