With large black eye, Irish woman details alleged domestic abuse in Facebook video

An Irish woman is being hailed for her bravery after posting a heartbreaking five-minute video on Facebook in which she details how her former partner allegedly abused her and tells victims of abuse that they shouldn’t live in silence.

Sitting on the stairs of her Dublin home as one of her young kids plays behind her, a black eye darkening the left side of her face, Emma Murphy explains the year-long ordeal of allegedly dealing with abuse.

“He denied it of course, and when I threw his phone, he punched me in the face. And it wasn’t the first time,” Murphy said.

“After Friday’s events, I finally realized that no, this is not acceptable. No man has any right to put his hands on a woman.”

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But her former partner, a 28-year-old gym owner in Dublin who has appeared as a fitness expert on the Irish public broadcaster, told The Irish Sun that he never punched her. He admitted to the newspaper that he slept with someone else, and pushed Murphy, but was adamant he never punched her.

“Yes, I did push her. I pushed her, I didn’t punch her. It was just the force,” Francis Usanga told the newspaper. “I did sleep with someone else. But I did not punch her and I absolutely did not split her head open.”

He went on to say his “business is now destroyed.”

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The newspaper also reported that Murphy made an official complaint to Dublin police on Friday, two days before posting the video. A police source told the newspaper they are treating it as a suspected assault.

Near the end of the video, Murphy implores women who are victims of violence to seek safety.

“If anyone out there has gone through something similar to what I’ve gone through, you need to find the courage and get away from anything that is unhealthy as violence, go to your friends and family, people who love you and care about you,” she said.

Murphy’s video has been viewed over 6.5 million times since she posted it on Monday.

The comment section of her Facebook video has swelled with people expressing their outrage, but also people posting their own experiences with violence.

One man wrote: “I’m 35 years old now, I grew up with a violent dad in the house who literally kicked my mother, me and my sister around for many years, physical and emotional abuse.  I still have nightmares and wake up thinking my Dad is beating me in my sleep – it took my mother over 11 years to do what you did.”