PC Richard Holliday, 27, was on patrol with PC Redouane Haddouch, 41, when they spotted Amir Abdul-Latif who was wanted for breaching parole.
As they moved in to arrest him, the 21-year-old produced a ketchup bottle of pure sulphuric acid from his coat and squirted it over both officers.
The thug was this week jailed for the attack in Earlsfield, South West London.
PC Holliday — scarred for life — said: "I can recall every second just as it happened, frame by frame . . . like a horror movie.
"I felt the pain erupt. The first few seconds were like the worst sun burn you could ever imagine, then it felt like boiling water was being poured over me. The pain was unrelenting. I could feel the acid eating into my face. My skin was bubbling up. Luckily I had my glasses on which kept the acid out of my eyes."
PC Holliday and PC Haddouch, 41, sank to the floor in agony after triggering their panic buttons.
In a cruel twist, their distress call was picked up by PC Holliday’s fiancée, Louise Caddy, 27, a WPC who is based at the same station.
PC Holliday added: "All she could hear was me screaming. It was horrific for her."
Abdul-Latif was caught four days later and charged with two counts of GBH.
The thug had been released from jail several months earlier, halfway through a three-and-a-half year stretch for robbery and beating up two shop-keepers. He was caged for a minimum of seven years at Kingston Crown Court on Thursday and will walk free only when he is no longer deemed a danger to the public.
PC Haddouch is back on full duties, but PC Holliday, who has had plastic surgery, can work only nights to avoid sunlight hurting his face.
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