A woman who survived being stabbed 50 times in an attack by her former partner in Dublin last year has urged women who may be in an abusive relationship to seek support as soon as they possibly can.
Niamh Kelly was left with lifelong injuries after 22-year-old Josh O'Brien assaulted her for up to six minutes on a street in Dublin in September 2024.
The 21-year-old spent seven months in hospital recovering from the attack during which multiple bones were broken in her skull and face, permanent damage was caused to one eye and part of her spinal cord was cut causing paralysis in her left leg.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, she said supports are always available for women in troubling situations.
"Once you see signs that it's getting toxic, you need to go or else you're going to end up being like to yourself in the future, 'I should have got out of there sooner’.
"So, get out of that relationship before it gets even worse and if you are struggling, there is help, support out there that can help you get out of stuff like that," Ms Kelly said.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
O’Brien was sentenced yesterday to 15 and a half years for attempting to murder his ex-girlfriend in what was described as a savage, unwarranted and unprovoked attack.
Ms Kelly said she respected the sentence handed down to O’Brien by Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring but hoped it had been longer.
"Before the sentencing happened, I thought he would have gotten a bit longer only because of how severe the injuries were to me.
"I'm obviously going to be disappointed but at the end of the day it is what the judge thinks is best...you kind of have to respect that.
"But I’m glad it's in the double digits and not like the single ones...I am glad it's over ten years," she said.
Ms Kelly said that O’Brien began the attack by punching her in the face before he produced the knife used in the incident.
"I was shocked because...this is supposed to be a person that loved me and cared for me.
"But now it's just like he's turned into someone that I didn't expect him to turn into," she said.
Ms Kelly added: "He punched me, slapped me multiple times and then I'm not sure if he kicked me to the ground or grabbed me and threw me to the ground...but I just knew I was on the ground.
"I couldn't really feel the knife because I had so much adrenaline in my body. It's like I couldn't feel anything.
"I didn't really see him like stab me...I just felt all the blood all over my hands...it was just so much blood everywhere all over my hands, my body, everywhere.
"While the attack was going on I just kept feeling myself getting more weaker and weaker, but this was because of all the blood that I was losing as well.
"I just didn't really know what to think, but I just kept thinking to myself, ‘this is actually happening to me. I don't know why this happened. I don't deserve any of this’," she said.
Ms Kelly said it was a miracle she survived and that she is lucky not to be completely paralysed because O’Brien had severed part of her spinal cord during the attack.
'My life's never really going to be the same again'
She described her seven-month stay in hospital while trying to recover from the attack as "not one bit easy".
"I was doing physio every week, from Monday to Friday when I was in hospital, I was doing physio constantly.
"For the first while, I was just doing stuff at my wheelchair because I wasn't getting anything in my leg, but over time I started getting like small little twitches in my leg.
"So then the physios were just looking over, doing a review of my leg, just saying like ‘what's going on there’," Ms Kelly said.
She added: "They're not really sure how it all happened, but I was just doing a few bits from getting out of my wheelchair onto this bed that they have in the gym...and I was able to do that, but it was a bit of a struggle because I'm still weak as well."
Ms Kelly said that she is angry and upset because O’Brien has changed her life forever, however she is focused on recovering as much as she possibly can.
"I'm obviously going to be angry, upset because now my whole life has changed.
"My life's never really going to be the same again, even with work. I was working in a good job. I was able to stand up on my feet.
"I was doing eight-hour shifts because I was in school, college and all at the time and now I can't go back to my job because I can't stand for a very long amount of time," she said.
For more information on supports related to domestic violence and abuse, see the RTÉ Helplines page.
