Supermodel Dirie attacked by stalker

A STALKER followed supermodel and best-selling author Waris Dirie from Britain to her new home in Vienna and then attacked her.

A 26-year-old Portuguese suspect was arrested in the Austrian capital yesterday, police said. Somali-born Ms Dirie suffered minor injuries in Tuesday’s attack, an official said.

Harald Hofmayer, a Vienna police official, said the suspect, identified only as Paulo A, was under the illusion he had a relationship with Ms Dirie and had stalked her for the past six months.

He showed up at her door on Tuesday, he said.

“She was so frightened and in shock that she let him in,” Mr Hofmayer said. Dirie suffered minor injuries when her assailant struck her and threw her to the floor, police said.

Mr Hofmayer said the attacker left by a taxi, only to return later on foot and smash a ground-floor window to the building. He was arrested when neighbours called the police.

The suspect met Ms Dirie about six months ago, when his brother was doing some work at her previous residence in Britain, the police official said. He later broke into that home and stole items of her clothing, the official said.

Ms Dirie, a prominent model and a women’s activist who has campaigned against the practice of female genital mutilation in some developing countries, is the author of the best-selling autobiography Desert Flower and a sequel, Desert Dawn.

As a former United Nations goodwill ambassador, she appeared in The Living Daylights, a 1987 James Bond film, and in Chanel perfume ads.

Ms Dirie has spoken out frankly about being a victim of genital mutilation when she was five in her native Somalia.