A Sydney plasterer has been found guilty of recruiting a teenager to set his girlfriend on fire.
The reason? Mohammed Ali Fouani, now 45, wanted his Korean English student girlfriend to give up her job as a sex worker and live with him, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
A District Court jury heard the man would spend up to $1000 for hours-long sessions with the sex worker.
Fouani explained in his police interview that “it was beautiful, everything was perfect” when the woman said she would become his girlfriend and give up her line of work.
But she delayed leaving the job in March 2012. A day later, she was set alight outside the Sydney brothel where she worked by a teenager Fouani recruited.
According to The Daily Telegraph, the woman was lit on fire and engulfed in flames for 17 seconds. She has permanent scarring after suffering burns to 45 percent of her body.
A jury heard Fouani threatened to harm the teenager and his family if he did not undertake the attack.
Fouani maintained he was innocent, but was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and to recruiting a child to carry out a criminal act.
This article originally appeared on Marie Claire.
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