Natasha McShane’s grandmother, Bernie, has said the Armagh woman’s “future has been taken away from her” following the Bucktown, Chicago baseball bat attack three years ago.
Earlier this week Marcy Cruz was sentenced to 22 years in prison for her involvement in the attack of McShane and her friend Stacy Jurich on April 23, 2010. She was charged with aggravated battery and armed robbery on two counts.
Natasha, a postgraduate University College Dublin student who was interning in Chicago at the time, has been left paralysed and unable to speak having been beaten around the head and back.
Herberto Viramontes will stand trial for this beating on September 9. Cruz was charged with her involvement. She also cooperated with the court, in promising to testify against Viramontes.
Bernie McShane told the Irish Sun newspaper Natasha’s family have not updated her on the court case.
She said, “We never talk about it in front of her.”
Natasha McShane, now 26 years old, can not long speak or walk, following a massive brain injury.
Her grandmother said her “future has been taken away from her.”
She continued, “I always said this couple should get a sentence that fits the crime. If you saw the way Natasha is — it’s terrible what they have done to her.”
When asked what sentence Viramontes should be dealt she refused to comment but added, “What I will say is that in the middle of all this, Natasha is the one who has got the quare sentence. She has been left not able to speak and not able to walk at all on her own. From what she was, it’s terrible to see her.
“It’s an awful thing. She had done so well as a student and had a great future ahead of her.
“But we still have her and I keep hoping and praying that someday we will get back a bit more of Natasha.”
Currently Natasha lives with her parents in Silverbridge, County Armagh. Her family are trying to get her a place at the National Rehabilitation Centre in Dun Laoghaire, in Dublin.
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