Survivor Sinead still has difficulty being on her own
After almost two years, she still finds it difficult to be alone in a house.
“I still get nervous when I am on my own at home, but I just have to try and get used to it. It’s [the attack] not going to go away so I just have to try and get on,” she said yesterday.
Sinead O’Leary strikes you as the type of person who is very determined; determined to get on with her life as best she can, even though she bears both the physical and psychological scars.
She had to have more than 200 stitches after the knife attack, mostly on her arms which she used to protect herself during the frenzied assault which saw her stabbed 20 times.
Aged 19 at the time of the attack, Sinead is now studying Applied Psychology in University College Cork. It was not something she intended to do, but she believed the course might help her better deal with the myriad of emotions she has been left to deal with.
She does not, however, think it will help her understand Peter Whelan’s motives.
“From the moment it happened it has been very vivid to me. Neither of us knew him and I don’t think anyone could understand why someone would attack two innocent girls. He knew what he was doing that night, he was not out of it in any way. He was very clear about what it was doing,” she told 96 FM yesterday.
After he was jailed, Sinead used to contact the prison officers to find out if Whelan showed any remorse for his knife attack which saw one of her closest friends lose her life. They told her he always slept well and never showed any remorse. He has never apologised to either Sinead or the Sweeney family.
“I did initially [monitor him in jail] but not now. I don’t think he should ever get out. If there was some change in him that would be different. But there has been no change, no remorse, nothing.”
