A SYDNEY plasterer who became fixated with a prostitute has been found guilty of recruiting a teenager to pour accelerant over her and set her alight.

Mohammed Ali Fouani, now 45, had wanted the Korean English student to be his girlfriend, give up her job and live with him.

He had pleaded not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent and to recruiting a child to carry out a criminal act in March 2012 outside the Sydney brothel where the woman worked.

But on Wednesday, the District Court jury found him guilty of the two charges. The jury was told Fouani threatened to harm the teenager and his family if he did not carry out the attack.

The victim, who was engulfed in flames for 17 seconds, suffered burns to 45 per cent of her body and permanent scarring.

In his police interview Fouani said “it was beautiful, everything was perfect” when the woman agreed to stop working as a prostitute and become his girlfriend. Fouani, who would spend up to $1000 for hours-long visits with the sex worker, said the woman told him she was going to tell her boss that she was quitting.

But she delayed her departure from the industry the day before she was injured, telling Fouani it would be hard to leave that week without letting her boss, who was also her friend, down.

Fouani said he didn’t like the type of work the woman did but had “accepted it”.

“I met her there and it was great money,” he said in the interview.

Judge Peter Whitford listed the case for a sentence hearing on September 22.