Served a year and seven months for Limerick assault on Natasha O’Brien
Paul Healy and Danny De Vaal
12:16, 25 Jul 2026
Cathal Crotty
Disgraced soldier Cathal Crotty has been released from prison.
He was freed from Castlerea Prison on Thursday. The former soldier, who brutally beat Natasha O’Brien in a case that shocked the country, served a year and seven months of a two year jail sentence he received last January, the Irish Mirror reports. The attack on Ms O’Brien took place in Limerick in 2022.
Crotty’s early release was down to standard remission and good behaviour behind bars. 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.
Natasha O’Brien(Image: Ayesha Ahmad)
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.”
When contacted earlier this month about his upcoming release, Natasha said: “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.”
When contacted, the Irish Prison Service it “does not comment on individual prisoners cases”.
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