Woman attacked by date she met on Facebook feared she would be murdered ‘like Ashling Murphy’

Pictures taken in the wake of the horror assault — during which Kerry man Neilus Cooney threatened to slice the woman’s throat with a scissors and twice punched her full force in the face — show how she sustained two black eyes before escaping from his clutches.

Cooney of Strand Street, Tralee, Co Kerry, who was sentenced to four years in prison earlier this month for the attack, also threatened to kill two gardaí who came to her assistance after she managed to flee her apartment and get help.

“The reason I’m speaking out is because I want other women to know how dangerous these dating apps are,” she said.

“I took all the recommended precautions … I had met him in public places first and I was with friends the day this happened … and he still did this to me.”

The woman said she and Cooney had initially been put in contact after being matched on Facebook’s dating page.

“There were no red flags,” she said. “He was very funny, and I felt a bit sorry for him because he said he was having a hard time of it with some personal stuff down in Kerry.

“I wasn’t interested in him romantically but he came across as nice so I met him a couple of times in Dublin for a coffee or a drink … but it was just a bit of craic.”

On August 9, 2022, Cooney travelled by train from Tralee and met the woman at Heuston Station.

“We went to a friend’s house,” the woman recalled.

“Then her brother came in and he gave me a hug and a kiss and he [Cooney] started going a bit wonky.

“I backed off the drinks then because I could sense the atmosphere changing.”

Because Cooney had travelled up from Tralee, the woman said she felt obligated to invite him back with her to her flat in Balgriffin when she left for her home with another friend.

But, the situation deteriorated when he got inside her apartment.

“He had these Lyrica tablets that he was snorting the powder out of,” she said. “And he started demanding money off me for drink and drugs.

“He was a complete Jekyll and Hyde. All I could think was: ‘How am I going to get him out of here and back to Kerry?’

“So, I got rid of the girl because she was a bit the worse for wear as well and I asked him to leave.

“But, he said: ‘I’m after travelling 300 miles … I’m not going f**king anywhere.’ I told him I didn’t want him in my apartment and that’s when he got really aggressive.

“He whacked me twice in the face … I put my hand up to defend myself … but the second one was a full force punch.

“I’d (be) pretty strong and I’m 5ft 8” tall but those punches still left me with two massive shiners.”

“Then, he told me: ‘All my teeth were going to end up on the floor.’”

Standing over the dazed woman, Cooney took her phone from her and put it in a basin of water so she couldn’t call for help.

Looking up in horror, the woman said she saw Cooney’s gaze fix on a 10kg kettle bell on the floor.

“It just came to me then,” she said, “he’s going to put that through my head unless I get out of here!

“This all happened after the Ashling Murphy murder. Her murder had struck a chord in the head of every woman in Ireland.

“And I was thinking of that, at that moment. I thought ‘I’m going to end up murdered like her’.”

Cooney, meanwhile, had switched his attention to a pair of scissors that he brandished at the woman before warning her: ‘I’m going to slice your throat open; I’m going to cut you into little pieces … you’re not going to be recognisable when I’m done with you’.”

Fearing for her life, the woman managed to get out of the apartment and building while a neighbour rang the gardaí.

Arriving at the scene, Garda Patrick Griffin and Sergeant Christopher O’Shaughnessy found Cooney in a highly aggressive state.

He produced two pairs of scissors from his pocket and threatened to kill Garda Griffin, who called for armed backup from the Emergency Response Unit.

Cooney also warned Sergeant O’Shaughnessy that he had a firearm in the house. He then went into the house and came back with his hand behind his back.

Sentencing Cooney — who has 39 previous convictions for offences including assault, robbery, theft, misuse of drugs and criminal damage — Judge Orla Crowe set a headline sentence of four years for what she said was a “completely unprovoked, sustained attack” on a woman in her own home.

“This was a man she thought she could trust. These were gardaí who were responding to an emergency call in the course of their duties,” said Judge Crowe.

The judge said a “chilling feature” of Cooney’s “extraordinarily threatening behaviour” was that his threats to cut up and slice the victims were credible because he was wielding scissors at the time.

Reacting to the sentence, the woman said she had been surprised Cooney had got as much as four years because the sentences handed down in Ireland for attacks on women are generally so lenient.

“I’m not happy that all he got was four years but I’m surprised that he even got that much … if that makes sense,” she said.

“Day in, day out, you see people like him go into court after perpetrating horrific attacks on women and they get off lightly because they plead drug addiction or mental health.

“It’s past time the courts in this country get serious about combating violence against women.

“I’m lucky … I’m a strong person so I can speak out about this.

“But another woman mightn’t have been as lucky.”