'Today I also feel proud'

On February 10 2023, Charleen was attacked by a man at the Grafton Capital Hotel.

The aggravator, 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.

Three years since the attack, Charleen took to her Instagram, writing: “Today marks 3 years since I was attacked.

“I can’t believe just how much time has passed. On this date, the past 2 years, I felt so angry and sad for my past self, and although that hasn’t gone away, today I also feel proud.

“Today is a day I take to reflect and to allow myself to feel proud of how far I’ve come. Proud that I learned to trust the world again and go on my solo travels, proud of the softness I protected and proud of the person I have become in the process.

“I owe so so much to my people around me who picked me up even on days they didn’t realise it & to all of you who support me always, I’m forever grateful.

“If you’re going through something that’s taken pieces of you, that’s made you feel smaller or lost or broken, please know this: you are still whole, and you are still here. With time, care and support, you WILL find yourself and happiness again & you will be even better than before!! Here’s to finding peace, happiness & taking back my power."

Charleen's attacker has since been released “on good behaviour”.

The Dublin native influencer opened up about the incident on an episode of Doireann Garrihy’s podcast Doireann and Friends.

Charleen recalled the attacker punching her in the back of the head, which caused her head to ricochet off a glass in front of her, leaving a 2inch gash on her forehead.

At the time, Charleen was rushed away in an ambulance.

“The whole thing is a bit of a blur, like I remember it, but I don’t. I think your brain tries to protect you from trauma a lot of the time.

“He went to prison then, but he’s out now, he got out early on good behaviour. I found out from someone else, which is really disappointing.”

“I found out from 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,” Charleen continued.

“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.”

The man who attacked Charleen had previously messaged her online. Charleen went on to say that she didn't think anything of the messages at the time because she knew the Gardaí wouldn’t take them 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 went on to tell listeners.

“Because I know if I had gone to [the police] about messages previously, 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 to have my own routine.

“Now I’m sure they have to tell everyone that, and its more for people being proper 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.

Charleen also moved into a new apartment, however, she was too afraid to share a tour of her new place on social media out of fear.

“I can’t have anyone even knowing the angle of my apartment, as 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.

“Whenever I do speak out about it, I was on Ireland AM, and a lot of the comments were like ‘well that’s what influencers get, you shouldn’t be putting up where you are’. Like victim blaming, and that pisses me off, like that is not right,” Charleen stressed.

“It’s never the person’s fault who got attacked, maybe people just shouldn’t attack people. That would really help, instead of like not having to put up where you are.

“I actually did Muay Thai then, I think for like three months, but I ended up fracturing my ankle doing it, which is really embarrassing.

“And up until that point, I felt so numb to everything, like I felt really weak, I think that's the main thing I felt, I felt like a shell of myself, I felt really small.

“So when I went to that, I felt like I felt strong again, and got that little bit of power back to like, if something was to happen, maybe I could know a little bit what to do… because you just don’t know.”

Charleen then went on to praise her family and friends for supporting her while she was going through such a traumatic time in her life.

“I feel really bad for my family and friends to have to see someone go through that, because you feel helpless, because it's just like what can you do.

“And then sitting there in court every time with me and having to watch that CCTV video, I’ve never watched it myself, but it would get played every time.

“I’m glad we had that though… like it was clear as day and that’s why it moved so quickly, and he was put away so quickly as well.”