Ghost of a flea

One 21-year-old waitress, who uses the pseudonym Veronica, said her parents were furious when she revealed her plan to sell herself. She said she signed up to the controversial project to earn money and change perceptions about sex.

She added: "Technically I'm selling my virginity for money, technically that would be classified as prostitution, but it's not going to be a regular thing, so in my head I can justify that I'm not going to be a prostitute."

'At that point I just felt that I would be dead. Death was, I felt, a better solution than to be burning like this.'

One witness said he looked like a 'cross between a zombie from a horror movie and the Incredible Hulk' after the attack last July.

Ms Khatoon and her husband Shakeel Abassi, 32, later disappeared in Pakistan and detectives said they now feared for her safety.