Man's Joke Costs Him An Eye, Attacker With 'Ghost Face Mask' Ruptures Victim's Eyeball

A father of two has been left half-blind after he was brutally attacked by a man in a "ghost face mask".

33-year-old Tarkan Mustafa, who lives in Stoke Newington, north-east London, lost an eye for a harmless joke.

On June 2, Mustafa and his friend had gone to the Suttons and Sons chip shop on Stoke Newington High Street, when he spotted a man wearing a ghost face mask.

Mustafa made an innocent joke to the man, saying he wouldn’t be served at the chip shop if he was wearing the face covering.

The masked man who did not like the comment, chased Mustafa down the street and attacked him - possibly with a knuckle duster. The man’s vicious attack ruptured Mustafa’s right eyeball leaving him half-blind.

Mustafa, a builder by trade, narrated his ordeal to My London.

"Everything's been taken away," he told the outlet.

Mustafa said his friend had just ordered food when "a couple of fellas walked in and one of them had a mask on his head, a ghost face mask or something".

Mustafa said he told the man: "They're not going to let you in like that mate. Just joking around - nothing serious, no insults or anything like that."

"One of the other guys was sort of laughing - it was just nothing, do you know what I mean?"

Mustafa said the masked man told him to look into his eyes and apologize. However, Mustafa didn’t apologize and walked away to diffuse the situation as he said he could see the man was "getting riled up".

But the masked man and his friend followed Mustafa out into the street and attacked him.

"It could've been a knuckle duster, a pole, or a knife or whatever, but they hit me in the eye, and ruptured my eyeball, and fractured the floor of my eye socket. It wasn't done with a fist, it was done with a tool," Mustafa said.

"Now I'm blind in my right eye," he continued, describing the pain as like "someone sticking a hot knife into the back of my eyeball."

Mustafa said, despite a month on from the alleged incident and photos of the attackers "being shared on social media", no arrests have been made yet.

The father said he cried when doctors told him that his left eye "is your last lifeline" and that he would never be able to see out of his right eye again.

"I don't know whether I'm going to be able to go back into the same job or not," Mustafa said.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, what's ahead of me."

Mustafa said he is now worried about how to support his 11-year-old son, and 7-year-old daughter, who are living with their mother but are still partially dependent on his income.

"I wouldn't wish this on anyone. All I ever do is help people. I'm just an outgoing, bubbly sort of guy," he said.

"It's not like we got into a row or anything. I was just having a laugh and it's come to this."

A GoFundMe has been set up by Mustafa's family to help support him and his children.