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28th May 2024
10:36am BST
The man who attacked influencer Charleen Murphy has been released from prison early.
It is understood that the man has been released "on good behaviour".
Charleen was horrified after being attacked by an adult male at a Dublin hotel in 2023.
She was having dinner at the Grafton Capital Hotel on February 10th when 28-year-old Craig O’Brien attacked her.
He punched the influencer in the back of her head which caused her to hit off the glass in front of her.
O'Brien pleaded guilty to the attack and was sentenced to 18 months in prison last November.
However, the influencer confirmed he is no longer in prison during a new episode of Doireann Garrihy's podcast.
She told the presenter: "He went to prison then but he’s out now, he got out early on good behaviour."
Charleen explained that she found out from someone else and not the authorities.
"I wasn’t rang, and I wasn’t alerted," she explained
"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," she admitted.
Charleen said it was "really disappointing" to hear that her attacker was out.
She added: "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."
The influencer said she protects herself by avoiding posting where she is online.
However, she doesn't think there is enough protection for women in Ireland, especially those who are being targeted online.
O'Brien had sent her concerning messages before the attack, but she said Gardaí may not have taken that seriously.
"It is 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."
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