A WOMAN blinded in a vicious attack by her boyfriend has urged other victims of domestic abuse not to suffer in silence.

Tina Nash, 31, spoke out as Shane Jenkin began a life sentence for the unprovoked assault in which he gouged out her eyes with his fingers.

The powerfully-built 33- year-old also throttled her until she became unconscious and broke her jaw and nose during the sadistic attack at her home in Hayle, Cornwall, in April last year.

Efforts to save her sight failed and she was left blind.

Ms Nash, who is the mother of two boys, spoke movingly of how her life had changed irreversibly 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.

“Don’t be frightened or embarrassed – there are specially trained officers who can and will help you.

“If you really feel unable to contact the police, there are charities and support groups such as West Cornwall Women’s Aid who will help, advise and support you in doing so.’’ Ms Nash said she had waited a long time for Jenkin to face justice for what he did to her that night.

“I have waited a year and three weeks for this day,” she said.

“It was a week short of a year before Shane decided to plead guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent, although he and I know that he tried to kill me that night.

“This delay I believe to be deliberate as Shane hoped I would give in and back out as I had done previously, and he was happy in the knowledge that he was still controlling my life by doing so.

“During this year my life has been in limbo as I have not been able to have the treatment and counselling I so desperately needed while Shane has had a team of experts, professionals and psychiatrists assessing and ensuring his well-being and that he received the treatment that he required. Shane was not mentally ill when he attacked me.

He was not drunk or under the influence of drugs.

“It was a silent, prolonged attack. Shane knows what he did to me that night and he has to live with that for the rest of his life.

“My life changed for ever that night and will never be the same but I am now able to move on, start my treatment and rebuild my life.

“I have a future and want to provide a future for my kids and be a good mum.’’ Ms Nash also praised the huge public support she had received.

As Ms Nash spoke movingly last month of how 6ft 4in Jenkin had wrecked her life, details of his explosive, unpredictable temper emerged.

He was banned from Penzance pubs for five years after attacking a policeman in early 2010.

The mother of two, whose children 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 for ever”.

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.”