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	Warning: Readers may find elements of this story distressing</p>
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	An Irish mother-of-three has opened up about her experience with domestic abuse after she was left &quot;traumatised&quot;.</p>
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	Vicki Mooney (39) who set up a plus-size model agency in 2014, said she wanted to speak out in an effort to raise awareness about domestic violence and shared pictures of her with a broken nose, black eye and bruised body.</p>
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	She said being reminded of those images &ldquo;shocks me to the core&rdquo; as she has since moved on from the relationship. The relationship has since ended, but Ms Mooney said seeing the images still has a huge impact.</p>
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	&quot;He would punch me, pull my hair and drag me along the floor. It was traumatising,&quot; she told Independent.ie.</p>
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	Ms Mooney described the relationship, which lasted for several months in 2016, as a &quot;toxic relationship&quot; and said she has been contacted by a number of women in similar situations since she first shared her story on TV3&#39;s Elaine.</p>
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	Since appearing on the show, Ms Mooney said several woman have reached out to her who are in similar situations.</p>
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	&quot;They said they were all too afraid to press charges as well because they were terrified of the man.</p>
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	&quot;Thinking about it opens up so many wounds and it&#39;s very frightening to be in that situation,&quot; she said.</p>
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	She said she never got a barring order against her former partner as she had &quot;no trust in the justice system&quot;.</p>
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	&quot;When I weighed up what I would gain and what I would have to go through, I decided to drop the charges. I have three children and they would have to give witness statements and I didn&#39;t want to put them through that again. It was traumatic for them.</p>
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	&quot;I also had no trust in the justice system that anything would be done.&quot;</p>
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	When Ms Mooney first appeared on the TV3 chat show, she said seeing those pictures &quot;shocks me to the core&quot;.</p>
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	&quot;It breaks my heart to think I ended up like that &ndash; that somebody thought it was okay to hit me that hard and that much, that my nose burst and I couldn&rsquo;t see my face,&rdquo; she explained.</p>
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	&ldquo;When that happened to me, I had a complete mind fog &ndash; it was a very toxic situation.</p>
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	&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t feel as if I could talk to anybody about it. When people asked why I had bruises, I was embarrassed. I was ashamed. I was ashamed to speak.</p>
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	&ldquo;When that happened, I remember someone said to me, &lsquo;You look like you have no soul in your eyes&rsquo; and I hadn&rsquo;t. I&rsquo;d lost myself through that.&rdquo;</p>
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	Ms Mooney said her children gave her the courage to leave her ex-boyfriend, who is not the father to any of&nbsp; her children.</p>
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	&ldquo;Coming out the other side of it, my children &ndash; my three beautiful children - because when there is a fist coming to your face and you quite literally can&rsquo;t see with blood, you don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s going to end. Only for my children being there, I don&rsquo;t know how I would have come out,&rdquo; she said.</p>
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	Ms Mooney, said she &ldquo;tried her best to fight back&rdquo; when she was attacked.</p>
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	She emphasised the importance of reaching out for help, either with a friend or a domestic violence service like Women&#39;s Aid and hopes sharing her story will give other people in similar situations the strength to leave an abusive environment.</p>
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	&ldquo;Walking away from it was so easy. For me, it was black and white,&rdquo; she said.</p>
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	&ldquo;When I say that now, there are thousands of women and men at home seeing these images and think, &lsquo;How do I do that? Where do I get the strength from to do that?&rsquo;</p>
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	&ldquo;It is your choice. You decide, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m going to call Woman&rsquo;s Aid. I&rsquo;m going to talk to my friend&rsquo;. When someone asks how you are and how you got the bruise, you decide and that&rsquo;s what I did.&rdquo;</p>
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	&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a very long process, but when you end up in a situation with somebody and it&rsquo;s&hellip; when there&rsquo;s that toxic energy and somebody can actually physically do that, that&rsquo;s when you go, &lsquo;I need to make a change&rsquo;.&rdquo;</p>
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	<em>If you find the above content distressing or you need help, please contact Women&#39;s Aid on 1800 341 900 or by logging onto their website which can be found</em>&nbsp;<em><a href="https://www.womensaid.ie/">here</a>.</em></p>
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	(Published by the Irish Independent on the 12th January 2017)</p>
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	<a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/he-would-punch-me-pull-my-hair-and-drag-me-along-the-floor-irish-mother-describes-horrific-domestic-abuse-35362726.html">http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/he-would-punch-me-pull-my-hair-and-drag-me-along-the-floor-irish-mother-describes-horrific-domestic-abuse-35362726.html</a></p>
