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Former soldier Cathal Crotty re-sentenced to two years in prison for attacking Natasha O’Brien

Former Irish soldier Cathal Crotty has been re-sentenced to two years in prison for attacking Natasha O’Brien in Limerick city in 2022.

The sentence was handed down by the Court of Appeal in Dublin’s Criminal Court on Thursday, after the DPP successfully appealed his original sentence, which was fully suspended.

During the hearing, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) argued that Cathal’s suspended sentence for beating Natasha unconscious sent out the wrong message, and was unduly lenient.

Cathal Crotty, Natasha O’Brien

During their appeal hearing, the DPP told the Court of Appeal that a prison sentence was required to deter others from committing similar crimes.

Last June, national uproar occurred after an Irish soldier who boasted about beating Natasha unconscious in an unprovoked attack in Limerick avoided jail time.

Cathal Crotty, 22, of Parkroe Heights, Ardnacrusha, Co Clare, walked free from court after getting a fully suspended sentence.

The DPP subsequently appealed his sentence on the grounds of undue leniency.

Cathal Crotty was a serving Irish soldier at the time of the attack

The 22-year-old serving Irish soldier attacked Natasha on O’Connell Street, Limerick, on May 29, 2022, after she heard him call someone a “f*ggot” and asked him to stop shouting homophobic abuse.

Mr Crotty initially tried to blame innocent victim, Natasha, by wrongly telling the Gardaí who arrested him that she instigated the attack.

However, after Gardaí showed Cathal the CCTV footage of him beating Natasha without any provocation, he admitted his guilt at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.

Hours after the attack, the Irish soldier boasted to his friends on Snapchat about the heinous act.

Cathal said, “Two to put her down, two to put her out”, referring to him striking Natasha four times.

Cathal Crotty

In court last June, Judge Tom O’Donnell wished Natasha well and asked her if she understood “the significance” of Cathal’s guilty plea.

The 22-year-old’s guilty plea eliminated the necessity for a trial which would have compounded her trauma and would have prolonged the case by approximately 18 months.

Natasha told the judge that while she understood this, she said she had already suffered the trauma of the attack, and “two long years of trauma” waiting for the criminal case to conclude.

The judge imposed a suspended three-year term on Crotty and ordered him to pay Natasha €3,000 in compensation. He was subsequently discharged from the army in July following public backlash.

Protests took place in Dublin in support of Natasha O’Brien

Speaking to Miriam O’Callaghan on Prime Time last year, Natasha said her experience in court was the source of her “true trauma”.

“I talk about how being attacked was traumatic, being a victim of a crime is not something that goes lightly or an easy experience, however, what I experienced in that courtroom last Wednesday was the true trauma. The true attack,” she confessed.

“If I had to go back and choose what I had to experience two years ago or last Wednesday, I’d go back to two years ago. It was that appalling.”

Natasha said she hoped she could help to inspire change in our judicial system by sharing her story.

Natasha O’Brien with Miriam O’Callaghan on Prime Time

“This happens all the time, I’m not the first to come forward and I won’t be the last but what I’m hoping here to do is to keep the spotlight on, to keep my foot on the gas,” she told Miriam.

“I was up in the public gallery today in the Dail watching, looking, they could see me watching… expecting answers, deserving answers.

“I think I speak for so many victims who don’t have a voice… I was beaten to within an inch of my life and I’m here to tell the tale so I’m not going to stop. It’s not in me to wish what I experienced on another human being, it’s not humane.”

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