Disgraced former soldier Cathal Crotty is due to be freed from prison next week, we can reveal.
Crotty (23), who brutally beat Natasha O’Brien in a case which shocked the country, has a formal release date from Limerick Prison next Tuesday. It will mean he will have served a year and seven months of a two year jail sentence he received last January.
It is understood Crotty is being released a number of months early thanks to standard remission and good behaviour behind bars. Sources say while he cannot be held beyond next Tuesday, he could be freed a few days earlier, over the weekend.
Cathal Crotty at home in Ardnacrusha, Co Clare(Image: Brendan Gleeson)
When contacted by The Irish Mirror prior to publication Natasha O’Brien was shocked to learn of Crotty’s impending release.
“I most definitely have not been kept informed by the authorities. I’m sure it won’t come as a shock to anyone, that as a victim I’ve been left in the dark yet again. This is the first I’m hearing of it! Imagine that.”
Crotty, who was booted out of the Defence Forces when he was convicted, had initially been handed down a fully suspended sentence in 2024 – but after public outrage the DPP successfully appealed it last January, arguing it was unduly lenient.
The former Private Crotty randomly attacked Ms O’Brien in a shocking incident in Limerick city in 2022. Crotty beat Ms O’Brien unconscious after she asked him to stop shouting gay slurs — and later boasted about it on social media writing: “Two to put her down, two to put her out.”
He later admitted his guilt after being shown CCTV footage. Ms O’Brien’s case shocked the country after Crotty initially received the three year suspended sentence. She has since gone on to become a prominent advocate for victims of assault and abuse, and appeared in her own documentary on RTE.
Paul Crotty (Father of Cathal) speaking to Paul Healy of the Irish Mirror at home in Ardnacrusha, Co Clare(Image: Brendan Gleeson)
In 2024 the Irish Mirror tracked down Crotty at his home in Parkroe Heights in Ardnacrusha, Co Clare, following the initial suspended sentence.
An angered Crotty first refused to engage with us, saying: “I just don’t trust you man. I just want this to be over. You’ll twist my words.” Crotty’s father Paul meanwhile, went on at length to blame the media. “I’m his father. You know and I know it’s the media that’s put him here as well,” he said at the time.
“Because in court he got his case squashed and a three-year suspended sentence. But it’s the media that’s put him further into it. Am I right? Yes I am. It’s the public media that’s incriminated him from here on in,” he claimed. “It’s the media that’s put him here, not the court,” he continued.
Natasha O’Brien (Image: Ayesha Ahmad)
“The court has done his case, and this is the way it’s gone. And now it’s media, Snapchat, Facebook, RTE news, blah, blah, blah, after the fact. That’s what’s going to drive him deeper down. Because if it was good news, you wouldn’t be here. If it’s bad news you would. That’s the facts.”
After his father spoke for some time Cathal Crotty, who had retreated inside the house, shouted at his father and said: “Dad will you shut up talking there and send him away.”
Just weeks later Crotty was formally dismissed from the Defence Forces following an internal disciplinary process. Speaking out after the attack Ms O’Brien told RTE it had left her in a “place of darkness” and suffering symptoms of PTSD, requiring multiple therapist appointments.
“I just ended up spiralling into self-destructive behaviours, I lost all interest and motivation for life,” she said at the time. “I wasn’t able to cope with reality, whether that was staying in bed for days or getting a bottle of wine.”
She said it was “terrifying” to see Crotty in court, adding: “I couldn’t even look”. Ms O’Brien said the justice system needed to change so that injured parties are represented by solicitors and barristers in criminal trials – not just the accused.
She also said she was sick of reading cases whereby people were let out on the streets after committing violence. “I am enraged for my nation more than for myself because this is much more bigger than me,” Ms O’Brien said. “I was just someone that had the voice that was strong enough to stand up.”
“I would like to see some true justice, I would like to see some effective change in the Dail.” Ms O’Brien called for a fresh national debate about the rights of victims in the criminal justice system, which she indicated were seriously lacking.
“That is definitely something that should be opened up for an honest discussion,” she said.
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