Kate Elizabeth Sutton[1] OBE (née Piper; born 12 October 1983) is an English writer, activist, television presenter and model from Andover, Hampshire.

More recently, Piper has appeared in multiple follow-up series for Channel 4, released a best-selling autobiography, and had a regular column in weekly magazines.

[6][7] After leaving school, Piper trained as a beautician, aiming to build on her fondness for fashion and beauty, and to follow in the footsteps of her father, who worked as a barber.

[3] In the hotel room, Lynch raped and beat Piper, threatened to cut her with a razor and hang her, and stabbed her several times in the arms.

Piper was treated for her wounds at Royal Free Hospital, but withheld the nature of the incident from the doctors and police, because she was afraid of Lynch.

On 31 March 2008, two days after the initial attack, Lynch persuaded Piper to go to an internet cafe to read an email he had sent to her Facebook account.

[12] Wearing a hoodie to obscure his identity, Sylvestre approached Piper, who thought he was going to ask for money,[3] and then threw sulphuric acid at her face.

[15][16] In 2022 it was reported Sylvestre had breached the terms of his parole on numerous occasions; he is now being hunted by police after going on the run and allegedly fleeing the UK that August.

She has been through numerous surgical operations to treat her injuries, and wore a plastic face mask for 23 hours a day,[9] which flattened the scars and helped retain moisture.

[3] Subsequent to the attack, Piper moved out of her London flat and returned to Hampshire to live with her parents and younger sister Suzy.

[12][25] Piper also took part in a documentary about her experience, Katie: My Beautiful Face, which was aired by Channel 4 on 29 October 2009,[12] and, according to figures from Attentional, gained over 3.3 million viewers.

The programme consisted of an interview conducted by Elizabeth Vargas, and footage of Piper at home, including material which had appeared in Katie: My Beautiful Face.

On 7 February 2012, Channel 4 broadcast a new one-off film featuring Piper as she prepared to undergo stem-cell surgery in a bid to restore sight in her damaged left eye.

Katie: The Science of Seeing Again[33] saw Piper look into the biology of the eye, visit the US to look into the religious and moral debate around the use of embryos in stem-cell research, and monitored her as she underwent the treatment by surgeon Sheraz Daya at Centre for Sight in East Grinstead, West Sussex.

In spring 2013, at around the same time as Piper's participation in Gok Live was confirmed, her next solo Channel 4 project was announced, which was to be a new documentary series, provisionally titled Undo Me, which would look at cosmetic and surgical procedures, and give advice to those looking to restore a more natural look having previously undergone treatments they now regret.

[36] In the same month, she appeared on Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy-hosted television-led debate The TV Show[37] to discuss the reaction to the original documentary.

Piper has also appeared as a guest on a number of British magazine and news programmes including Live From Studio Five, Woman's Hour,[38] BBC Breakfast[39] and This Morning.

In 2013, Piper took part in The Secret Millions, a Secret Millionaire spin-off in which each of five C4 hosts—Piper, Gok Wan, George Clarke, David Fishwick and Jimmy Doherty—work with a charitable or public-service organisation, running a scheme or pilot with the aid of disadvantaged or unemployed individuals, with the aim of convincing the Big Lottery Fund to give up to £2 million of funding (per scheme) for such projects to be rolled out more fully.

Piper's episode aired on 14 April 2013 as the fourth of five transmitted; it featured a project in which prisoners were prepared for re-entry into the workplace by undertaking working placements in furniture manufacture.

In 2018, Piper became a brand ambassador for Swarovski, alongside celebrity chef Nadiya Hussain and CoppaFeel founder, Kris Hallenga.

The first of these was a self-help book titled Things Get Better: If you believe then you will survive,[46] followed by a page-a-day compilation of positive affirmations, quotes and mantras, Start Your Day with Katie, both of which were published in 2012.

[53] Piper was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to charity and victims of burns and other disfigurement injuries.