13 April 2012 Last updated at 05:58 ET

Blinded assault victim 'buried alive'

Tina Nash says she feels "like a ghost" since being blinded in the attack

A woman left blind after her then boyfriend gouged her eyes, says she hopes he "has nightmares every night for what he's done".

Shane William Jenkin, 32, from Penzance, Cornwall, assaulted Tina Nash last year.

Ms Nash said life without sight made her feel she has been "buried alive".

After the attack at a house in Hayle, Cornwall, Jenkin kept her imprisoned for a further 12 hours.

Lost confidence

Ms Nash said she now felt like a ghost. She could hear the people round her but could see nothing.

"I think the hardest thing is the fact that I'm not going to see my kids' faces again.

"I actually feel that if my kids weren't in the house that night, I wish that I wasn't still here.

"I'd rather not be here like this. This isn't me," she said.

She said she had lost everything and missed the world around her.

"I've got nothing now. I like sleeping because when I am asleep that's when I am dreaming and then when I wake up I think, I've got another day of this again.

"All my confidence has gone."

Ms Nash said Jenkin did not try to help her during the 12 hours after the attack.

"If I had seen someone in that much pain looking like that, the first thing I would do is get help and he didn't. I can't forgive him for that.

"He said I was his 'best mate'. I don't understand why you would hurt someone you were supposed to care about."

Ms Nash had been attacked before by Jenkin and had helped in his release from jail for previous offences.

"I've done so much for him and this is how he's repaid me," she said.

As a victim of domestic violence, she appealed to other woman in similar situations to "get out before it's too late".

"It isn't going to get better, it's only going to get worse," she said.