ASSAULT victim Natasha O’Brien says she never intended her attacker to be so vilified, telling us: “That wasn’t fair.”
The Limerick woman, 25, was viciously beaten by 23-year-old former soldier Cathal Crotty in May 2022.
He was handed a suspended sentence at Limerick Circuit Court in June 2024 — leading to mass demonstrations nationwide.
The DPP successfully appealed its leniency and Crotty, who was sacked by the Army, was caged for two years in January.
But Natasha admits Crotty’s jailing left her very conflicted.
She told The Irish Sun: “A year ago I never felt listened to. My physical and mental scars were not considered by the court and handing him a suspended sentence completely compounded everything for me.
“Then the DPP appealed it and for the first time in an Irish court I felt listened to and the court decided to send him to jail. But I took no pleasure in seeing a young man being led away to prison. In fact, I found the experience quite unsettling.
“He made a mistake. Yes, it was a very bad mistake but he’s not the only person who’s done something like this and so many others don’t get punished at all.
“He was so vilified and became this poster boy for gender-based violence and that wasn’t fair because he’s not the only one.
“And who knows what effect all of this has had on him and his family? This young man’s life is now destroyed and I found myself asking the question: Is all of this my fault? Am I to blame for ruining this man’s life?”
She added: “If the courts had done its job in the first place then maybe he wouldn’t have been so vilified in its aftermath or become this poster boy for the whole movement.
“So I think in many ways he became a second victim of this very flawed justice system.”
Natasha was attacked after finishing a shift at a Limerick pub. She had asked Crotty to stop using homophobic language.
He grabbed her by the hair and pushed her to the ground, before punching her in the face until she lost consciousness.
Vile Crotty later boasted on Snapchat: “Two to put her down, two to knock her out.”
Natasha was attacked just months after Ashling Murphy was murdered by Jozef Puska.
‘COULD HAVE BEEN VERY DIFFERENT’
And ahead of a documentary on Natasha airing on RTE 1 at 9.35pm tonight, she said: “I know how lucky I was. I had a brain injury and who knows, maybe one more punch and I might not have been so lucky.
“And it came so soon after Ashling Murphy died so it made me very aware that things could have been very different.
“But when the protests began and the demonstrations that I spoke at, I had to be a voice for so many others who didn’t have one. There are so many women, and men, who suffer every day and aren’t able to speak out.
“If one small thing came from my case, it’s that maybe it has helped others to be able to speak out or come forward. And if that has happened then everything has been so worth it.”
