‘How can someone be so sick’: Charleen opens up about dark assault ordeal before Love Island

Love Island 2026 cast member Charleen Murphy suffered a horrific assault before she was an Islander on the show this year. Charleen has opened up about the ordeal, which she said has left her frightened of everything.

Content creator and influencer Charleen was victim to an attack in 2023, that took place in a Dublin restaurant. She later confessed the incident had left her “scared of everything and everyone.”

Love Islander Charleen said the man had been persisting her with constant messages online, before the attack. At the time, she was having dinner with a friend, but this quick turned to disaster and Charleen was rushed to hospital, needing stitches for a head wound.

“I was sitting in a restaurant, in a hotel staying with a friend, we were having dinner. I just felt this blow to the back of my head, my head basically went so full force forward into my glass that the glass completely shattered,” she told RTE.

“Initially I didn’t know what it was, but I was conscious the whole time. So my head, basically it was so full force, it went so full force into my glass that the glass shattered and smashed, and left me with a cut in my hairline. I looked to my left and I could see him standing there. Straight away, I knew who it was, he had been messaging me in the past online.”

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via RTE

Charleen had been hit over the head by the man with such strong force that she smashed her face into a glass in front of her, and suffered cuts to her head. She had a two-inch laceration on her face.

She added: “There’s men still that comment on my profiles and say he should have hit you harder… how can someone be so sick and have that mindset? It was a really scary time afterwards, to not feel safe anywhere.”

The man who committed the crime was handed an 18-month sentence, but was released after 13 months. It since been reported the same man is facing prison once again, this time for harassment claims, and making threats to kill.

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