Imagine never setting your eyes on your children again, never seeing the sun set and rise, smelling the sea air as it crashes against the rocks but not seeing it. For Tina Nash, 32, from a small town in Hayle, Cornwall, UK, this is a stark reality and it is now only in dreams she regains her vision, because on the April 21st, 2011 she lost her sight.
"I feel like I’ve been buried alive." said Tina Nash when she spoke for the first time of her ordeal. "I actually look forward to going to sleep, because in my dreams, I have sight. It’s when I wake up that the truth hits home.”
Last year her boyfriend Shane Jenkins, 33 ,subjected her to a 12-hour “premeditated, sustained and vicious attack.” as described by a Detective Inspector. For Tina life would never be the same because on the horrific night in question Jenkins gouged out her eyes.
"I wonder if he brags that he's the last person I saw," said Tina, during a BBC interview. On Tina's birthday, Jenkins who now resides in a psychiatric unit spoke to the Daily Mirror stating, "I didn't start the whole thing that night. She's the one that attacked me. I'm not as evil as everyone has made out, I'm actually really chilled." Why did Jenkins choose her Birthday to give his own account of events ? It appears even now he is intentionally attempting to control her life. The night before the attack the couple had watched the horror film Hostel in which a lady has her eyes gouged out. On the night in question the couple had argued after Jenkins had attempted to hand some sleeping pills to a neighbour and Tina had left and gone to bed at her own home in Hayle, Cornwall, only later to be beaten unconscious in her sleep.
"When I came round he was trying to strangle me and knocked me unconscious. I come round again and he was strangling me again and he knocked me unconscious again but when I came around again I realized what was going on and thought oh my god, he's trying to kill me.” Tina then in desperation apologized and said she loved Jenkins, it was only then she was to realize the severity of her injuries when Jenkins chillingly described what he had done to her. “Your eyes are hanging out your head, you will never see your kids again, I'm going to get 20 years for this”
Tina then felt her face only to realize one of her eyes was now out of the socket and hanging from her face and another punched deep into the socket. It was in that moment Tina Nash discovered she was blind. Other injuries included a fractured jaw and a broken nose. Yet despite her desperate pleas to be saved and for Jenkins to call an ambulance he did not release Tina for 12 hours. Doctors and surgeons battled for four weeks but couldn't save Tina's eyes. One eye was pushed so far back it had burst and she now wears a prosthetic eye in her left socket.
Six foot four inch Jenkins who has the word "Outlaw" tattooed on his arm, owned a book about Raoul Moat a deranged murderer from Newcastle upon Tyne who shot three people with a sawed off shotgun before killing himself in July 2010. During Moat`s attack he had shot a police officer David Rathband who survived but was permanently blinded. Jenkins reportedly once told Tina, "If I am going down, I am going down for something worthwhile."
This was not the first time Jenkins had been violent, three months before the attack he was reportedly charged with breaching bail after being charged with a domestic assault causing actual bodily harm. Pubs in Penzance, Cornwall (the Southwest of England), had repeatedly barred him for violent behaviour. "He once dragged someone outside, up the road, put a bench on his head and started jumping on it,” one barman said, “He ended up with a fractured skull and brain damage and I think he did some prison time for that but played the diminished responsibility card and was out in about 10 months. This was several years ago in his mid-twenties." Devon and Cornwall police refused to confirm this.
Eight months into his relationship with Tina he had physically attacked her after she had found him with her friend dressed only in her underwear. As an explanation to the event he punched her three times. She then had fled to the bedroom and hid under the duvet but he attacked her again pressing his thumbs into her eyes but that time she had managed to escape. From then on in their relationship Jenkins had subjected Tina to repeated violent attacks, strangling and beating her, she had stayed with him out of fear.
Jenkins has been given an indeterminate sentence with a minimum of six years, which he is serving in a mental hospital. He admits he "went nuts" and "lost the plot" but continues to blame Tina for the assault. Tina has life changing injuries, she will never see her children again or the Cornish seaside but now lives independently with her two sons 4 and 14 and their new pet dog. She is striving to help other women who are victims of domestic violence by highlighting her own suffering at the hands of Jenkins, urging them to speak up. "Shane was not mentally ill when he attacked me, he was not drunk or under the influence of drugs."
As she stood for the cameras last month, she was a completely changed woman from the victim who tearfully described her ordeal, she is now a survivor who continues to outstand locals with her positive attitude.
"I urge anyone out there suffering domestic abuse to contact the police before it is too late. Don’t be frightened or embarrassed," said Tina.
Update 2022
