SerpApi.Org
A Co Fermanagh woman “sickened” at the sentence handed out to a man who subjected her to a brutal assault, including strangulation, has warned it could put off other victims of violence from coming forward.
Medical student Clíodhna Martin feels “badly let down” by the justice system after the 21-year-old watched the man who put her through hours of violence and fear was jailed for just eight months for non-fatal strangulation.
She has bravely waived her anonymity following the trial of Eoin McKervey, who was sentenced earlier this month at Belfast Crown Court after attacking her at his student accommodation in Belfast after meeting his victim on a night out.
McKervey (23), of Killykappy Road in Lack, Co Fermanagh, was handed 24 months for non-fatal strangulation – which became an offence in Northern Ireland in 2023 – eight of which will be served behind bars with the remainder on licence.
He was also sentenced to six months, to run concurrently, for five counts of common assault.
McKervey, who denied all charges, was acquitted of three counts of rape and three sexual assaults.
Clíodhna continues to maintain she was raped and sexually assaulted during her ordeal in February 2024 when she was just 19, and says she is “absolutely devastated” at the outcome of the trial.
She has also questioned why the sentencing, which she believes is lenient, has not been brought forward to the Court of Appeal.
Now having completed her third year of a medical degree at Queen’s University, Clíodhna has courageously spoken out about getting on with her life in the aftermath of the nightmarish attack at the hands of a fellow student, who had attended Ulster University.
The twisted attacker was not found guilty of any sexual offence – an outcome she says will “leave a lasting effect on me”.
Clíodhna told the Irish News of how she watched McKervey’s trial, and gave evidence at it, via Skype so she did not have to face the man who put her through “hell” on what was supposed to have been an enjoyable night out for her friend’s birthday.
Then living at Queen’s halls of residence, Clíodhna went to a Belfast nightclub where she met McKervey, whom she knew of from back home in Fermanagh, but had never properly met.
“I got chatting to a different boy in my course, and got separated from my friends,” she said.
“At some stage I got talking to Eoin McKervey. My friend later told me he had been hanging about watching while I was talking to this other fella.
“I knew of him. We had been in group situations before, never had a one-on-one conversation, but he was in the same year in school as my older brother.”
After chatting, the pair kissed, and Clíodhna agreed to share a taxi back to McKervey’s Holylands accommodation, close to her friend’s house where she was planning to stay.
She told McKervey she was looking to go back to her friend’s house, and was not interested in taking things further with him.
“He was very aware of what my intentions were – I was making it clear I wasn’t interested in anything happening. I was on my period that night, I said that to him – so that he wouldn’t try anything."
McKervey had initially been friendly, insisting Clíodhna could wait in his house until she made contact with her friend.
“Eoin had been like, you can come in here, everything’s really chill – he was being really normal at that stage,” she explained.
“It wasn’t until we were behind closed doors, completely one-on-one in his bedroom that he got aggressive.”
She described how McKervey’s “whole demeanour changed” and he started making unwelcome advances, despite her previous insistence she was not interested in sexual activity.
“I told him, ‘look, I’ve already told you I’m not going to do anything’,” she said, adding he turned aggressive, and “went on to do whatever he wanted”.
“The more I resisted, the more violent he became,” said Clíodhna, who was trapped in his bedroom.
She was subjected to repeated strikes and bites, and was spat upon by the brutish McKervey.
“He would say, ‘I’m going to do this, and if you flinch, I’m going to hit you again’,” Clíodhna said of her ordeal, which lasted through the early hours of the morning.
“He started spitting in my face. He told me to open my eyes, and - he specifically said these words - he said ‘I’m going to spit in your eyes’, and if I closed them he was going to hit me across the face again.
“The only way I can describe how I felt is numb – I couldn’t really believe what was happening to me. I was disassociated.
“He put his hands around my neck and began choking me. I thought, is he going to kill me here?
“At one stage he left the room and told me not to move. He came back with something - the only way I can describe it was it felt like ice, but was plastic.
“He used that object on me, doing anything that would cause me pain and discomfort.”
McKervey would “stop and start” throughout the night.
“I thought he was going to leave me alone, but he would start again,” she said.
“His demeanour was the same throughout. He knew from the start I wasn’t ok with any of this, but I think that made him want to do it more.
“He had me hold my hands above my head, and he would bite down on me really hard and say if I flinched at that, he would hit me again.”
Clíodhna was left with “bruises all over my face and the top of my body” and a burst lip.
“In the morning, he asked, ‘did I do that to you’, in a mocking way, and just burst out laughing. There was no remorse or anything,” she said.
“He told me that morning he was a sociopath and that when he got angry, he got really angry – all this sort of talk.
“I thought he was trying to intimidate me more, to make me scared to leave.”
Clíodhna eventually got a response via text from her friend, and asked her to collect her in her car.
“I thought that would be the safest thing,” she said.
“I remember sprinting down the stairs, and he ran after me. I remember the fear that he wasn’t going to let me leave.
“I got into my friend’s car and she brought me back to her house. I only told her bits and pieces as I was in total shock. In my mind at that stage I just wanted to blank it out.
“I remember I kept talking about this uni presentation I had that day, which sounds silly now, but I think I was just trying to get my mind to focus on one thing, to not think about what happened.
“I didn’t think about going to the police that day because I was still in shock.”
Clíodhna went back to her family home on the Friday, and told her parents what had happened.
The police were called, and she was taken to the Rowan sexual assault referral centre in Antrim.
McKervey was eventually arrested, charged and released on bail, but Clíodhna said she was afraid to go out in case she crossed his path.
McKervey continued to play for his local GAA team in Fermanagh, and Clíodhna’s brother endured having to face him in a match against his own local club.
Eight months after the attack, while out for another friend’s birthday, she saw McKervey at the bar of a nightclub.
“I froze in place. He walked away, and I remember thinking, did I just imagine him there because I’m so afraid of him that I’m hallucinating?”
She immediately left with the help of friends who swiftly ushered her past McKervey and out into a taxi.
Clíodhna had continued with her studies following the attack, but says it has “affected my whole uni experience”.
“Especially with Belfast, I just hate being up there now, and I never really feel safe. It’s ruined that for me,” she said.
McKervey’s trial got underway last November, but was impacted by the barristers’ strike that led to prolonged delays in almost 2,500 cases.
“He was asked by the prosecutor, ‘do you like hitting girls’ and he said yes, but tried to make out that it came from me,” she said.
“When the prosecutor asked him if this was stuff you liked to do, these ideas all came from you, you never asked Clíodhna to do any of these things, he admitted that all came from him.”
The jury convicted McKervey of non-fatal strangulation and common assault.
“I was shocked he was found guilty of that level of violence, but yet they weren’t sure beyond reasonable doubt that any sexual activity wasn’t consensual – I found that hard to understand," she said.
“They saw my injuries. They accepted I was strangled, wasn’t able to breathe and in fear for my life.
“I really feel the system has badly let me down.
“What can a girl in this situation do? If she can get beat up like that, but it’s claimed the rest is all consensual?
“I was sickened, and absolutely devastated with the outcome.”
His sentencing earlier this month was the one time Clíodhna faced him in the courtroom
“If he got to walk out of that court I knew I would be in a really bad way, so I didn’t decide on going until the day itself,” she said.
“But I was shocked at the sentence. I was happy in a sense he was going into custody, and wasn’t walking out with a suspended sentence. But he only got two years, and is only serving eight months. I couldn’t believe it.”
She was advised there would be no opportunity to take the sentence before the Court of Appeal.
“They have offered to have a meeting to explain in more detail, but it was borderline in terms of unduly lenient,” she said.
“Even with the sentence he got, I don’t understand why he was only given the eight months behind bars instead of 12.
“He might be back in Belfast for my final year in uni.”
She said non-fatal strangulation, which can carry a maximum sentence of 14 years “was such a big deal when it was introduced as an offence, but I feel my case undermines all that good work”.
“Anybody looking at this – if you’re going to make a policy like this, but not have appropriate sentences, how are you going to deter anyone?" she said.
“There is a lasting psychological effect on the victim.
“The big thing for me was that if I could get an adequate result from this, then I could turn around to another girl who went through something similar and say, go forward as you’ll get justice for it, but now I just feel, is it worth it, for what you went through?
“It’s the unfairness of it that would honestly make it harder for me to encourage someone else.
“I don’t believe justice has been done at all.”
A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service said: “The prosecution team, including Senior Counsel, carefully considered the sentence imposed in this case.
“In all the circumstances, it was determined that the sentence passed did not meet the threshold in order to be referred to the Court of Appeal as potentially unduly lenient.
“Following this, the victim was informed of this decision by police and was offered the opportunity to meet with Senior Counsel to receive a more detailed explanation should she wish to do so.”
They added: “This was a deeply distressing case, which was prosecuted robustly by the PPS.
“We commend the victim for reporting her experiences to police and for the courage and resilience she demonstrated throughout the criminal justice process.”
A spokesperson for the Office of the Lady Chief Justice said it was not appropriate to comment on sentences imposed in individual cases.
“While the offence of non-fatal strangulation carries a maximum sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment when prosecuted on indictment in the Crown Court, there is no prescribed minimum sentence,” they said.
“The sentence imposed in any individual case will depend upon the particular facts and circumstances of that case and the application of the relevant sentencing principles.”
