Ingrid Marie Rivera was left swollen and covered in rashes on her way to beating 29 rivals in the competition to decide Puerto Rico’s representative in the 2008 Miss Universe contest. Tests on her clothes and make-up revealed they had been doused in pepper spray.

Although she retained her composure in front of the judges and cameras, backstage Ms Rivera desperately applied bags of ice to her face and body to fight the effects of the inflammatory spray.

Watch: Ingrid's infamous pepper spray incident

The incident was the third setback suffered by Ms Rivera in the lead-up to her triumph. Her belongings were stolen on the first day of competition while the final day had to be postponed after a bomb threat. Jealous rivals claimed Ms Rivera, a former winner of Miss World Caribbean in 2005 and a beauty pageant veteran, was too experienced and that she had bought her way to the title.

Beauty queen backlash

The attack on Ms Rivera is the latest controversial incident to blight a beauty contests. Back in June, the Miss Universe audience roundly booed Miss USA Rachel Smith after she tripped and fell onstage. Eventual winner Riyo Mori (Miss Japan) was forced to deny allegations that a Japanese company had offered the competition’s Mexican hosts money to ensure her victory.

On the home front, Miss England Georgia Horsley recently fell victim to anti-social networking after a hacker falsified her MySpace page. The faked profile listed her hero as Katie Price and claimed her favourite hobby was drinking. Miss Horsley will be England’s representative at Miss World 2007.