Charleen Murphy has marked two years since she was attacked by a man in Dublin’s city centre.
The popular influencer was traumatised when she was attacked by a man at a Dublin hotel in February 2023.
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.
Taking to Instagram two years after the attack, Charleen wrote: “Today marks 2 years since I was attacked whilst sitting down having dinner with a friend.
“February 10th will always feel heavy every year, knowing what I went through but I also feel proud of the journey I have been on
“I remember flying home from visiting Dano who lived in England at the time and having a knot in my stomach about landing in the country I loved and lived in. A country that I usually would’ve had such a sense of comfort landing in, felt so alien and scary to me.
“I thought I would never feel genuinely happy again or have any feeling of safety. I wish I could go back and promise her that she will feel so much happiness again.”
“For a long time I was scared of everything and everyone, things I never would’ve second guessed I found myself overthinking. I felt weak and it took so much pushing myself to make sure that I didn’t feel like that forever,” she continued.
“I’m so grateful for the beautiful community I have on here and my family, friends and Dano for supporting me in ways you don’t even realise.
“For anyone going through trauma or problems of any kind who feels like they have lost themselves in the process, I promise you that you will get yourself back and you will be shining brighter than ever.
“To more happiness and more life,” Charleen added.
Picture Brian McEvoy
While Charleen’s attacker was jailed over the incident, he has since been released “on good behaviour”.
The Dublin native opened up about the incident on an episode of Doireann Garrihy’s podcast Doireann and Friends.
Charleen recalled the man in question 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.
The social media star was taken away in an ambulance, and 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.”
“He 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.
“I found out off someone who’s 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 someones 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’s attacker was known to her, as he had previously sent her messages online.
The 24-year-old said she didn’t think anything of the messages at the time because she knew the Gardaí wouldn’t take it seriously, and that she would be told “this isn’t America”.
“So its 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 its 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 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 moved into a new apartment last year, but couldn’t 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, 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 its 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 done 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 thats the main thing I felt, I felt like a shell of myself, I felt really small.
“So when I went to that I feel 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 went on to praise her family and friends for supporting her through such a tough time, particularly her boyfriend Dano.
“I feel really bad for my family and friends to like have to see someone go through that, because you feel helpless nearly because its 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.”
Charleen has exploded in popularity over the past few years, and has over 231k followers on Instagram and almost 200k on TikTok.
The Dublin native also hosts the popular podcast Hold My Drink with her best friend Ellie Kelly, and won Influencer of the Year at The Gossies 2024 last March.
Speaking to Goss.ie on the pink carpet, Charleen said she was finally feeling like her “old self again” following a turbulent year.
When asked whether she’s still on edge since the attack, she told us: “I was for awhile and sometimes I still am if I’m thinking about it but there’s so anymore times now that I’m not thinking about it.”
“There’s times that I just feel good and carefree and it’s so nice to feel like my old self again.”
The 24-year-old added: “Compared to this time last year, how I feel in myself is just night and day so I’m so happy to be happy.”
