Charleen Murphy says finding out attacker released from prison is ‘slap in the face’

The 25-year-old Dubliner ended up in hospital after a thug tracked her down to a hotel bar she was socialising in with a friend and punched her in the back of the head in February of last year.

Craig O’Brien (28) was sentenced to 18 months in prison at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in November, after pleading guilty to assault causing harm to her at the Grafton Capital Hotel on February 10.

However, Charleen has now revealed her attacker has already been released “on good behaviour”.

Speaking on the latest episode of Doireann Garrihy’s podcast Doireann and Friends, the Dubliner revealed how her attacker “went to prison then but he’s out now, he got out early on good behaviour.

“I found out off someone else which is really disappointing,” she said. “I found out off someone whose auntie works somewhere being like ‘we’ve seen him around’. I wasn’t rang, I wasn’t alerted, which is really bad I think.

“Because I’m already hyper aware of where I am when I’m there, but then when you know that someone’s out when they attacked you, you’d kind of want to know like.

“So that was really disappointing, and to hear someone’s out on good behaviour is just like a slap in the face, because you don’t get much time anyway in Ireland.”

Charleen was having dinner with her friend when from behind her attacker “punched her full force to the back of the head”.

A later court case heard her head rebounded off the glass she was drinking from, resulting in a two-inch laceration on her face.

The social media influencer recalled being taken away in an ambulance, but said: “The whole thing is a bit of blur, like I remember it but I don’t. I think your brain tries to protect you from trauma a lot of the time.”

It was claimed she and her friend recognised her attacker from “previous online abuse” and that afterwards, he sent her a voice message via social media saying: “How’s the head?”

However, 24-year-old said she didn’t think anything of the messages at the time because she thought the gardaí wouldn’t take it seriously, and that she would be told “this isn’t America”.

“So it’s kind of disappointing that we’re let down in the sense that we don’t have that protection straight away of people taking it seriously,” she told listeners.

“Because I know if I had went to [the police] about messages previous, I would have got that answer because my friend had got that answer before.”

When asked how she goes about protecting herself now, Charleen explained: “Just not posting where I am when I’m there, really.

“A guard came to my house after it happened and they obviously have to be really thorough so he was like ‘you can get someone to seal your letterbox up’ like telling me all these security measures… so that kind of freaked me out but it was nice that they came and told me.

“But then he was like ‘make sure you don’t have a routine’, and I was like it’s so unfair that I’m not allowed have my own routine.

“Now I’m sure they have to tell everyone that and its more for people being proper (sic) stalked, but just things like that as well, like I feel like I can’t share… it affects my work in a way because I feel like I’d love to share more but then I have to think of my safety, and that is priority.”

Since the attack Charleen moved into a new apartment but felt that she couldn’t show off her new place on social media out of fear.

“I can’t have anyone even knowing the angle of my apartment, like I’ve never taken a picture of the view from my balcony even though the sun is so nice every evening,” she said.

“It sounds so stupid, but it’s just little things like that that you shouldn’t have to think about but you do.”

Earlier this month, Charleen and her influencer pal Ellie Kelly warned people about posting information about their movements on social media.

Charleen told the Sunday World she is still recovering from the attack.

“It’s something that will stick with me, but it’s been nearly 18 months now, so I’m just getting healing and I went to therapy and stuff, and feel much better about it, but it’s still a difficult thing to cope with,” she explains.

Her attacker was able to find out where Charleen was after she included her location on a posting, and she warns others to be wary.

“I think like it’s something everyone needs to do, whether you’re an influencer or not, we just have to be more savvy about being online, because it’s so new that people can know our locations from where we post,” she says.

“That would never have happened in the past, so it’s just really important that we be careful.”

Ellie (28) backs up this stance: “I think everybody should be [aware] anyway, regardless of who you are on social media.

“I think you should always be wary of posting things on social media and the repercussions of that as well. I think everybody should mind themselves a little bit more.”