'I couldn't risk the kids seeing him' - wife beaten up by former partner flees to UK after he leaves prison

Susan Walmsley previously told the Herald she feared for her life when her relationship with ex-partner Muhammed Tajik, who she met online, turned violent.

Ms Walmsley said Tajik, originally from Afghanistan, "groomed" her through messages shared over Instagram before she went to visit him in Turkey nine months later, where he became abusive days before they wed.

Tajik applied for asylum in Ireland in 2015 after he moved over with Ms Walmsley.

Speaking to Liveline on RTE Radio One yesterday, Ms Walmsley said she had left Ireland to return to the UK.

She said she would like to visit her family in Ireland, but the risk of coming into contact with Tajik was "too scary".

Risk

"I do have family in Ireland - Dublin and Co Mayo - but I was born in the UK. This is my home. I came back to what I know, what my support systems are," she said.

"I want to bring my children to see my relatives, but I can't do that. It's too scary and just not worth the risk."

Ms Walmsley is still recovering from her injuries.

"The left side of my jaw hasn't healed properly, so I've got a displaced disc. It looks like I'll have to have another operation," she said.

"I'm hoping to get some of my teeth replaced at the side. I have PTSD, I suffer with depression and anxiety. My injuries or my experience of it isn't going to be healed or fixed any time soon."

Tajik attacked Ms Walmsley while she was pregnant in 2015, fracturing her jaw and eye socket.

He admitted assault causing harm and was jailed for three years in 2017 at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin and was released from prison last month.

Ms Walmsley said the violence began two days before the wedding.

"The manipulation and the mind control, coercing had already started," she said.

"Two days before the wedding, I was trying to get away from him. He beat me up in his apartment where he was living. Even on my wedding photographs two days later I've got a black eye.

"People might not understand why I went through with it, but I was that scared. I didn't know what to do, I just went ahead with it. A big mistake."

She said gardai were alerted to the abuse when she was hospitalised after the brutal attack.

"I had a double broken jaw, fractured eye socket, burns, bruises, bite marks," she said.

"When I convinced him to take me to the hospital, as soon as I got there I let somebody know. I took that opportunity to get away from him.

"Then the gardai got called, and it all carried on from that."