A brave woman who grabbed a hunting blade with her bare hand during a terrifying knife attack said she still suffers ‘pain every day’ – ten years after the deadly assault that left her with life-changing injuries.

Ruth Maxwell has called for an overhaul of how victims of serious assault are treated by the State, and for an immediate overhaul of the existing compensation scheme.

In an interview with the Mail a decade after the attack, Ms Maxwell described how it continues to have an impact on almost every aspect of her daily life.

The former Wella hair model said she struggles to do her hair now as a result of the injuries she sustained on May 16, 2016.

Speaking from her home near Lough Key Forest Park in Co. Roscommon, where the Dublin native moved after the attack, Ms Maxwell said: ‘The pain I suffer is every day. On May 22, I have an appointment with the neurologist for my hand.

‘I have arthritis and nerve damage. I have had to knock down kitchen presses and put up shelves and put food in jars with flip lids instead of knocking things over. 

'Everything is strategically placed in my house so it’s not taking loads of movement to do things.’

Ms Maxwell was viciously attacked by Slawomir Gierlowski while on her way to work in Dublin. 

Two years later, Gierlowski was jailed for 18-and-a-half years for the premeditated attacks on Ms Maxwell and two other women over a five-year period.

In 2021, the serial predator was found guilty of attempting to rape a fourth woman in December 2010.

Judge Michael White said at the time Gierlowski remained a serious threat to the safety of women and imposed a 10-year sentence, to begin after he served the previous jail term.

In 2022, Gierlowski was jailed for another six years for assaulting and falsely imprisoning a woman in a Dublin park, bringing his total jail time to more than 34 years. He is not due for release until April 2042.

Although a decade has passed since the attack, Ms Maxwell said ‘sometimes it feels like yesterday. It has been nonstop for the whole 10 years because there has been so many court appearances’.

And Ms Maxwell received another ‘shock’ this week when she was informed Gierlowski would be back in court this Friday in relation to yet another appeal.

Last month, the serial offender failed to convince the Court of Appeal that the circumstantial evidence against him was ‘tenuous’ and led to an unsafe conviction.

Ms Maxwell said of the ongoing legal trauma she’s endured: ‘I have had hundreds of those emails since the trial in 2018 because I signed up with the Victim Liaison Service (VLS). 

'I think I’ve clocked up roughly 170 court appearances. I stopped counting at 153.’

Despite the gravity of her attack, which attracted huge media attention, Ms Maxwell said she received full psychological support only last year, nine years after the offence.

And as her physical injuries worsen, there is still no long-term support framework in place.

She said: ‘There is no dedicated organisation specifically supporting victims of violent or knife crime. As a result, recovery is harder than it needs to be.’

She welcomed a report from the Law Reform Commission (LRC) in March recommending an overhaul of the victim compensation scheme but said it ‘will only mean something if the Justice Minister [Jim O’Callaghan] acts promptly’.

The survivor, who works with the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal as a consultant supporting victims and represents Ireland on Europe’s Victims Advocate Platform, also called for an opt-out referral system for victims across all services.

She said the VLS should be an ‘opt out’ one as some victims do not even know it exists.

Ms Maxwell added: ‘There’s no way of keeping a record of who the victims and survivors are, so that’s the closest you can get to having a violent crime register where there is a conviction. It’s the only way to keep track, but a lot of people have not heard of the Victim Liaison Service. People are not getting the information.’

Ms Maxwell said the trauma can be so overwhelming it can leave people ‘unable to seek help’.

She added: ‘Support services should make initial contact automatically while still respecting a victim’s right to decline. That way no victim is left stranded.

‘The burden still remains on victims to gather their own evidence while traumatised. The assistive three-tier process is very welcoming but if you can’t get past that first tier because you’re too traumatised, grieving or severely injured, then it’s re-victimising and obstructive.’

She said an ‘online shared portal’ for victims and the VLS to upload documents would give transparency: ‘I would have been less traumatised with that clearer process of gathering Garda and medical reports.

‘All applicants should have legal support if needed. I chose to legally represent myself, which in itself was exhausting but worth it financially, and also so I could clearly follow my progress.

‘The whole lot was a sickening experience, looking back now.’

She added: ‘I was naive before the attack because I presumed if something happened to you it was all in place. I was so very wrong.’

The Department of Justice said Jim O’Callaghan ‘welcomes the recent publication of the Law Reform Commission’s Report on Compensating Victims of Crime’.

A spokesman acknowledged: ‘Existing arrangements for compensating victims of crime have remained largely unchanged for over 50 years and are in need of reform. Recognising this, the Programme for Government committed to placing the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal on a statutory footing.

‘Work on drafting the necessary legislation will now be prioritised, taking account of the recommendations in the LRC report.