Life in jail for Briton who gouged out girlfriend's eyes - Hindustan Times

A British man who gouged his girlfriend's eyes out with his fingers, leaving her blind, was jailed for life on Friday.

Shane Jenkin, 33, attacked mother-of-two Tina Nash at her home in the seaside town of Hayle in Cornwall, southwest England, in April last year. He also throttled her until she fell unconscious and broke her jaw and nose.

Nash said that after assaulting her, Jenkin said: "It's all your fault. I'm going to get 20 years for this. You're blind and your kids grow up. It's all your fault."

Twelve hours passed between the attack and Jenkin allowing an ambulance to be called, a court heard.

Jenkin, who is physically far larger than Nash, had attacked her nine other times in the year before the eye-gouging incident.

On the night of the attack, Nash, 31, awoke to find Jenkin on top of her and strangling her.

After the sentencing hearing, Nash said she believed Jenkin had tried to kill her.

"During this year my life has been in limbo as I have not been able to have the treatment and counselling I so desperately needed whilst Shane has had a team of experts, professionals and psychiatrists assessing and ensuring his well-being and that he received the treatment that he required," she said.

"It was a silent, prolonged attack. Shane knows what he did to me that night and he has to live with that for the rest of his life.

"My life changed forever that night and will never be the same but I am now able to move on, start my treatment and rebuild my life."

Nash also told the BBC that she was coming to terms with the attack but added: "I don't think I'm brave, I think I'm surviving... you only get one life, so I'm not going to let him ruin it."