THE thug who left a former Hampshire model blind in one eye after he threw acid in her face is believed to have applied for parole.

Katie Piper, originally of Andover, suffered third degree burns when her ex-boyfriend Daniel Lynch arranged for Stefan Sylvester to carry out the attack in 2008.

Now it is believed that Mr Sylvester’s legal team have applied for a parole hearing and aim to convince the board he is no longer a danger to the public.

The 27-year-old was sentenced in May 2009, to indefinite detention, but he has served the minimum term recommended by a judge.

Katie, 39, has had 40 operations to treat her injuries, which were so severe that at one pint she wore a plastic face mask for 23 hours a day.

Justice campaigner Norman Brennan, said“It’s most likely Sylvestre will be released if he has behaved himself in prison and they don’t deem him to be a danger.”

“A sentence of six years for the horrific crime of all but destroying not just the looks but the future of a ¬beautiful young girl was far too lenient in the first place.

"This type of crime has to be prevented.

“Therefore I and many others would consider that this is a very dangerous man and poses a threat to any woman that he may have a relationship with.”

Last year, Katie, 31, wrote in her autobiography of her devastation at the prospect of Sylvestre being released.

She wrote: “It was hard to believe that the man who threw acid in my face had already served almost six years of his life sentence, or that he was eligible to apply for a change in the terms of his ¬imprisonment.

“The two of them had taken so much from me, and now this man’s punishment might soon be over.

“I thought, ‘I’m the one with the life sentence. Not him. He can change his identity, change his name, get a new job, a partner, move on, but I can’t. I can’t pretend it didn’t happen because it’s all over my face’.”