A mother-of-two who had her eyes gouged out by a sadistic ex-partner is living in constant fear after learning he will soon be back on the streets.
Tina Nash, 44, was permanently blinded during a horrifying 12-hour domestic attack by sick thug Shane Jenkin in 2011.
Jenkin, 46, was moved to an open prison two weeks ago – meaning he will be allowed to walk the streets unsupervised and look for work and education and to visit family as early as this summer.
Tina, from Penzance, Cornwall, told MailOnline: ‘I’m terrified. He could be stood right behind me in a shop and I wouldn’t have a clue because he blinded me.
‘I know he wishes he’d killed me that night because then there would have been no witnesses and I couldn’t speak out. I still live in Penzance, I’m a sitting duck.
‘I feel very scared for my safety, the parole board has said he is vengeful and I’ve heard from people on his landing that he couldn’t stop talking about me.
‘I’ve been warned the first thing he’s going to do is come straight for me.’
Horror film-obsessed Jenkin carried out his monstrous attack in April 2011. The night before he had watched an eye-gouging scene in the zombie movie 28 Weeks Later.
Tina Nash, 44, was permanently blinded during a horrifying 12-hour domestic attack by sick thug Shane Jenkin in 2011
Jenkin, 46, was moved to an open prison two weeks ago – meaning he will be allowed to walk the streets unsupervised and look for work and education and to visit family as early as this summer
Tina recalled how she felt her face to discover her eye hanging out of the socket and ‘thought she was dead’.
Truro Crown Court heard it was one of the worst cases of domestic abuse the UK has ever seen. He was sentenced to life with a minimum of six years in 2012 and has since made seven failed bids for parole.
But with Jenkins now in an Category D open prison, Tina has bravely spoken out in order to prevent others going through similar abuse and has shared an up to date photo to warn women he meets of his violent past.
She said: ‘People who knew him tell me he’s twice the size he was when he went in, he looks like a meathead.
‘He was big before but he just looks dangerous. I don’t believe he will ever be safe in public – he has a violent past long before what he did to me.
‘They told me that the decision to release him was ratified by the secretary of state in December.
‘I wasn’t even told that I could lodge an appeal until after the 21 day window to do so had closed.
‘I’m the one serving a life sentence, not him – I’ll never see my children’s faces again, and he’s being given his freedom back.
‘It’s two-tier justice all over again – this government bends over backwards to give abusers another chance, and treats their victims like an afterthought.’
Tina says she feels badly let down by the justice system after being assured it would be ‘many, many years before he was released’.
She rarely dares to venture out of the house after previously being extremely sociable and at one point didn’t leave her bedroom for six months.
After learning that she was powerless to stop his transfer to an open prison, she launched a GoFundMe page to help pay for security upgrades to her house for when he is released.
Tina recalled how she felt her face to discover her eye hanging out of the socket and ‘thought she was dead’
Tina says she feels badly let down by the justice system after being assured it would be ‘many, many years before he was released’
She said: ‘I cannot depend on the authorities to help, so I’m having to do it myself. The donations will go towards keeping me safe, my legal case and buying things I desperately need.
‘If Jenkin is released my property must be urgently target hardened, I need cameras and a security consultant to help me.’
Tina has also set up a petition against his release which has already been signed by more than 11,000 people.
But instead of applauding her efforts to raise awareness, Tina claims probation chiefs ‘told her off’ for speaking out about her case with one asking her ‘don’t you feel sorry for him, putting this on his head?’
She said: ‘When they said that to me I felt confused – I have every right to speak out and I don’t want this to be brushed under the carpet. I don’t want this to happen to anybody else.’
The Probation Service is currently investigating Tina’s complaint about the comment and the staff member involved is understood to deny using those words. Tina has since decided to sever contact with the Probation Service.
Inmates in Category D prisons are considered ‘low risk’ and often have their own keys and are allowed to spend their days away from the prison as well as taking part in educational, vocational and work programmes.
As recently as two years ago Jenkin was held at a maximum security prison and has previously spent time in a psychiatric unit.
He subjected his ex-lover to a 12-hour attack in which he broke her jaw, throttled her until she was unconscious and blinded her by gouging out her eyes.
Truro Crown Court heard in May 2012 that Jenkin attacked Miss Nash while she slept at her home. Her two sons Liam and Ben were in the property
Ignoring her desperate pleas to call an ambulance, Jenkin kept her imprisoned for 12 hours and throttled her into unconsciousness before blinding her.
She had several operations over four weeks of hospital treatment but surgeons could not save her eyes.
Miss Nash, then 32, told the court of her heartache at knowing she will never again see her two sons.
Losing her sight felt like being buried alive, she said.
Describing the assault, Judge Christopher Clarke said that Jenkin ‘repeatedly held her tightly around the neck and, as he continued to strangle her, she lost consciousness and from time to time she hallucinated’.
Describing the assault, Judge Christopher Clarke said that Jenkin ‘repeatedly held her tightly around the neck and, as he continued to strangle her, she lost consciousness and from time to time she hallucinated’
Jenkin had attacked Miss Nash before. Tina said she had thought she could change Jenkin’s violent behaviour but warned other victims of domestic violence to get out ‘before it is too late’.
Jenkin had also been repeatedly banned from his local pubs in Penzance for violence, and three months before he blinded Miss Nash he was reportedly charged with breaching bail following an assault charge.
The 18-stone brute was jailed for life in a secure mental health unit and ordered to serve at least six years before being considered for release.
He immediately appealed against his sentence but the Court of Appeal rejected it.
His lawyers argued that the life sentence should be quashed to allow him to go free when his doctors are convinced he had beaten his mental illness.
But the judges ruled that Jenkin was dangerous with or without a mental illness.
Laura Richards, former head of the Scotland Yard’s Homicide Prevention Unit and criminal behavior analyst, told MailOnline she believes Jenkin is a psychopath who can never be safely released.
Laura – who helped keep child killer Colin Pitchfork behind bars – said: ‘Based on everything I have assessed he has an extreme lack of empathy and no fear of the consequences. I believe Jenkin is most likely a psychopath.
‘He has no moral code whatsoever and there is a real risk here. He has just said the right things to tick a box and move closer to release but if my assessment is correct he will never be safe to be released.
‘If he is a psychopath the risk assessment is flawed and if he is released he will harm somebody else, I have no doubt about that.
‘The Parole Board must take the safety of future victims into consideration.
‘Tina has been failed spectacularly by the police, probation and everybody. She was told he would be in prison for life.
‘Her case is precedential because she survived something most people wouldn’t. Throughout the court case he always blamed her and she is now much more vulnerable because she is blind.’
Ms Richards, who analysed Tina’s case in her podcast, has urged Brits to write to Labour Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood demanding she reverse Jenkin’s downgrading until he’s tested for psychopathy.
MoJ have been approached for comment.
