Natasha O'Brien: 'Keep coming forward because we’re only going to make an impact'

Natasha O’Brien says she 'felt completely alone after her ordeal last week in court, but is heartened by the level of support she has received

Natasha O'Brien: 'Now, that I have the nation backing me, it’s amazing.'

Natasha O’Brien has described how the friends of the soldier who viciously attacked her on a Limerick street did not attempt to restrain him, and the assault only ended after a man who heard her friend scream for help intervened.

Last week, a court heard that Cathal Crotty, a serving soldier in the Irish Defence Forces, beat Ms O’Brien unconscious in an unprovoked street attack in 2022, and boasted about it afterwards on social media. Crotty walked free from a court last Wednesday after receiving a fully suspended jail term.

Speaking on Tuesday, Natasha O’Brien said she “felt completely alone after the whole ordeal last week in court” but she has been heartened by the level of support she has received in the wake of the judgment against her attacker.

Recounting the sequence of events which led to her 2022 assault, Ms O’Brien told Ireland AM that she and her friend were walking down O’Connell Street in Limerick when they happened across a group of men shouting aggressive homophobic slurs at a man who was on his own on the other side of the road.

“We were just very shocked, very frightened for him,” she said.

She said her and her friend’s intentions were just to tell the group of males not to use the slurs they had directed at the other man.

“I didn't want to wake up the following day and read a headline about some young man who was viciously attacked,” she said.

She was then assaulted by Cathal Crotty, who grabbed her by the hair and started repeatedly punching her in the face.

I felt like a punching bag, you know. It was pretty gruesome. I just definitely didn't feel human.

Ms O’Brien said her attacker continued to strike her after she fell to the ground.

Asked whether Crotty’s friends attempted to stop him, Ms O’Brien said that her friend — who was frozen in fear over what was happening — watched as Crotty’s friends walked away without making attempts to restrain him.

Later, Ms O’Brien’s friend told her she felt helpless during the assault, fearing that if she intervened and was herself attacked, she wouldn’t be able to get Ms O’Brien medical assistance.

Eventually, another man who heard Ms O’Brien’s friend screaming for help ran towards Crotty and pulled him off of her.

“Having been the victim of something like that, I found out how bad people can be, but I also found out how good people can be,” she said.

Asked about her assailant’s posting and boasting on Snapchat about the attack, and using the phrase: “Two to put her down, two to put her out”, she said she couldn’t even begin to understand why someone would think to write something like that.

Speaking about the subsequent court case and impact of Crotty being given a fully suspended three-year sentence for attacking her, Ms O’Brien said it was difficult to hear a military superior of Crotty’s give what she described as a “glowing character reference” for her attacker.

Later in the interview, host Tommy Bowe asked Ms O’Brien what she wanted to see come out of all that she has been through.

She said she has been blown away by the reaction to her story, and pledged to keep speaking about what happened to her. Ms O'Brien said she has already spoken to a number of people who had experienced something similar, or who knew someone close to them who had.

She also urged “anyone isn't happy with our society” to attend a protest she and her friends and supporters are taking part in outside the Dáil at 6pm on Tuesday.

Speaking on Tuesday, Natasha O’Brien said she 'felt completely alone after the whole ordeal last week in court' but she has been heartened by the level of support she has received in the wake of the judgment against her attacker. File photo: Cate McCurry/PA

“Walking out of that courthouse on Wednesday, the isolation, the devastation, I was so deflated. I just said: ‘What is the point in any of this?'

“But now, that I have the nation backing me, it’s amazing," she added. 

“it's just great to be able to use my voice and hopefully make a difference, because that's why I'm talking about this and I'm sharing my story so that people can relate to me and be angry and direct their anger at the right people.

“Keep coming forward because we’re only going to make an impact."