Houston woman viciously attacked in Sri Lanka, says suspected attacker is social media influencer
HOUSTON - "I've always loved going on solo trips and just seeing different countries and exploring different cultures," said Jordan Thornton.
Thornton says she was having a great time in Sri Lanka until she and a friend went to a club called Cheeky Monkey.
"This man approached us and demanded that we move, and that we needed to leave, and then he verbally started harassing us," Thornton said.
She says she would later learn that man is Nikolaj Omby Ibsen, a social media influencer from Denmark.
"I looked up and saw Nikolaj holding a glass, and he wound his arm back and threw it like it was a baseball, and he was standing right over me, and I was seated in a corner," said Thornton.
Thornton says Ibsen's girlfriend pushed her cell phone out of her hand. Then seconds later you can hear the glass shattering.
"I was in shock really. I knew I needed to get the glass out of my mouth, so I just started spitting the glass out, and just trying to get away from the situation," Thornton said. "My lip was basically hanging off my face in three different areas and that's when I really began to panic. I had to go to three different hospitals over the span of three hours."
"The second doctor who saw me pulled the ice bag away from my face, she screamed, and said no we can't help you. You need to go to a different hospital," said Thornton "I want to make sure no one else is going to go through what I went through, because of how violent this was, and because he ran away and left the country immediately and is denying responsibility. I think that proves he poses a threat to other people."
Thornton says Isben is named in an arrest warrant, and she fears law authorities in Sri Lanka and the U.S. Embassy there have lost interest in the case since her return to the United States.