Blinded woman Tina Nash makes domestic violence appeal

Tina Nash (right) being supported by a police officer outside Truro Crown Court. (PA)

A woman blinded in an horrendous violent assault by her boyfriend has urged people suffering domestic violence to come forward.

Tina Nash, 31, made her appeal as her former partner, Shane Jenkin, started a life sentence for the attack, in which he gouged out her eyes with his fingers.

Shane Jenkin, 33, also throttled Tina Nash until she was unconscious and broke her jaw in a vicious attack at her home on 20 April last year.

After the attack Jenkin kept Nash imprisoned for 12 further hours.

Ms Nash spoke movingly of how her life had changed but said others must not go through what she did.

"I urge anyone out there suffering domestic abuse to contact the police before it is too late," she said in a statement read on her behalf outside Truro Crown Court.

Shane Jenkin, of Sea Lane, Hayle, Cornwall, had pleaded guilty to a charge of grievous bodily harm with intent, but denied attempted murder.

He was handed a life sentence by Judge Christopher Harvey Clark QC at Truro Crown Court today.

The minimum term of the sentence was set at six years.

He is currently being treated at the Butler Clinic, a medium secure psychiatric unit in the grounds of the Langdon Hospital in Dawlish, Devon.

Judge Clark said the assault was a "barbaric attack involving extreme violence".

Efforts were made to save the sight in one of Tina Nash's eyes, but this was unsuccessful.

Ms Nash, mother of two children who were aged 13 and three at the time of the attack, said she was glad Jenkin had "at least taken responsibility for changing my life forever".

She said: "I truly feel that, when he was strangling me, he was trying to murder me.

"He has taken everything from me and robbed me of one of the most precious things in life - my sight."

Ms Nash also told the BBC that she "has nightmares every night for what he's done", and that losing her sight has made her feel like she has been '"buried alive".

The judge passed a life sentence and said Jenkin would serve a minimum term of six years, minus the time he has already spent in custody.

"In view of all the circumstances in this case, it may well be many, many years before the parole board consider the defendant safe to be allowed out in the community," he added. "In my judgment he is a very dangerous man from which the public needs to be kept safe."

Ms Nash was at court and sat in the public gallery but Jenkin refused to attend.