Garda in serious condition after assault

Kess73

An off duty garda is meant to be in a fairly serious condition in hospital after an attack on him in the Patrick's road area early this morning.


It is the second assault on an off duty garda in Limerick in recent months and I hope that it is not going to be tsomething we hear more of.



http://www.live95fm.ie/news/news-item/garda-seriously-injured-in-limerick-assault/00534955-4a58-4c62-a029-6efc8ca0d12b

GARDA SERIOUSLY INJURED IN LIMERICK ASSAULT

16 September 2012

An off-duty member of the Gardai has been seriously injured following an assault in the early hours of the morning.

The incident occurred in the St Patrick's Road area of the city around 3.30am.

Live95fm's Denis Tierney has more...

The Co. Galway-based Garda was returning home from a night out with his wife, who is from Limerick when he was confronted by three men.

The Garda was struck in the face and hit his head on the ground sustaining a serious head injury in the process

The victim who has a number of years of service with the force was taken to the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle where his condition is described as serious.

Gardai at Henry Street are appealing for any witnesses to come forward and contact them at 212400.

Silentcorner

The thread title is a little misleading, I thought an on duty garda had been assaulted which IMO is a different issue to an off duty garda getting assaulted

liammur

It also seems random as the garda was based in Galway so wouldn't have been known to the thugs. But another dreadful story, hopefully he makes a speedy recovery.

Kess73

Silentcorner wrote: »

The thread title is a little misleading, I thought an on duty garda had been assaulted which IMO is a different issue to an off duty garda getting assaulted

I figured that people would work that bit out when they read my post or the actual article. The victim is still a garda, and the attack is no less serious in terms of injury whether he was on duty or not.

Silentcorner

Kess73 wrote: »

I figured that people would work that bit out when they read my post or the actual article. The victim is still a garda, and the attack is no less serious in terms of injury whether he was on duty or not.

I read your post and the article and to me a civilian was assaulted, which is a serious issue in itself but unfortunately he most likely was one of a few dozen people throughout the country who was assaulted last night, in general when someone is assaulted they tend not to release his/her occupation

If he had been an on duty garda who was assaulted, that like i said would be a whole other issue

Insect Overlord

Silentcorner wrote: »

I read your post and the article and to me a civilian was assaulted, which is a serious issue in itself but unfortunately he most likely was one of a few dozen people throughout the country who was assaulted last night, in general when someone is assaulted they tend not to release his/her occupation

If he had been an on duty garda who was assaulted, that like i said would be a whole other issue

Don't post in this thread again.

Forget that. Thread ban removed.

Cork Boy

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Don't post in this thread again.

Harsh. The news title infers his occupation is relevant to the story when it really isn't.

An assault on a person because he's a garda is an assault on us all and our safety.

An assault on joe public (it seems in this case the victim was for all purposes, just a joe soap). While the effect on the victim is no less traumatic and I'm certainly not trying to excuse the assault or trivialise it or the victims pain, it is nonetheless not the same as an assault on a person because he is a garda.

source

Cork Boy wrote: »

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Don't post in this thread again.

Harsh. The news title infers his occupation is relevant to the story when it really isn't.

An assault on a person because he's a garda is an assault on us all and our safety.

Yet somehow occupation is relevant when a garda is involved in a road traffic collision, on or off duty or when virtually anything else happens, except when a garda is a victim of something.

langdang

As if he couldn't have been observing 3 scumbags up to no good while off duty and trying to ring it in, or even intervening in something while off duty. Whether he was or not, who knows.
At the very least, a normal person is in hospital due to the actions of (most likely) free-roaming scum. I hope he makes a rapid recovery.

Cossax

Cork Boy wrote: »

Harsh. The news title infers his occupation is relevant to the story when it really isn't.

An assault on a person because he's a garda is an assault on us all and our safety.

An assault on joe public (it seems in this case the victim was for all purposes, just a joe soap). While the effect on the victim is no less traumatic and I'm certainly not trying to excuse the assault or trivialise it or the victims pain, it is nonetheless not the same as an assault on a person because he is a garda.

Agreed. The title would only be relevant if the assault was either a) in the line of duty or; b) because he was a member of AGS.

charlemont

These types of random assaults are a scourge, People shouldn't have to put up with that on their way home from a night out.

liammur

Cossax wrote: »

Agreed. The title would only be relevant if the assault was either a) in the line of duty or; b) because he was a member of AGS.

Not necessarily. If an off duty garda saved someone, his occupation would be mentioned, furthermore, as someone alluded to, perhaps he saw these 3 thugs doing something and maybe intervened. Anyway, let's hope he makes a full and speedy recovery.

flutered

throw hand bags aside girls.

syklops

charlemont wrote: »

These types of random assaults are a scourge, People shouldn't have to put up with that on their way home from a night out.

I know quite a few people who have been assaulted in one way or another. Only a very small few were randomly assaulted for no reason whatsoever.

I'd bet good money there is more to this story.

leakyboots

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Don't post in this thread again.

For what, disagreeing??

Kess73

syklops wrote: »

I know quite a few people who have been assaulted in one way or another. Only a very small few were randomly assaulted for no reason whatsoever.

I'd bet good money there is more to this story.

That has been suggested in some quarters, but I did not want to say so in my original post as I have not seen it said anywhere that could provide a credible link to be put up.



Just saw today that there was another man assaulted over the weekend in Limerick city, not a garda, and that he is fighting for his life in Cork University Hospital. Like the victim of the first assault mentioned in this thread, I hope he recovers fully.

flutered

syklops wrote: »

I know quite a few people who have been assaulted in one way or another. Only a very small few were randomly assaulted for no reason whatsoever.

I'd bet good money there is more to this story.

was treir not some athlete who was in limerick attending hartmans injury clinic assaulted last year while out running, this is a sore in our socity, which can never be cured, even with more cops and cctv.

Itsdacraic

flutered wrote: »

was treir not some athlete who was in limerick attending hartmans injury clinic assaulted last year while out running, this is a sore in our socity, which can never be cured, even with more cops and cctv.

That was years ago

langdang

Itsdacraic wrote: »

That was years ago

And shur maybe that athlete "looked at them funny" ? Like so many others..

Look, I'm not looking to get into a feud myself here, until the full facts are out then it is possible it wasn't a random attack. But then again maybe it was. We could be arguing it forward and back forever. Personally, I'm inclined to give a Garda the benefit of the doubt here.

Kess73

Just reading more about it in today's paper. What is being reported as having happened is that the garda and his wife were getting out of a car after getting a lift to the house of one of his wife's relatives. Three men then attacked the garda and left him in a bad way on the ground before leaving.

Then his wife went to ring the emergency services and the attackers then came back and took her iphone and handbag whilst she was making the call.

Just seems odd that the three guys were there when the car arrived and that they came back to rob the stuff rather than leaving and then coming back to rob the wife.

What it sounds like is that the attackers were in the area and just looking to attack whatever unlucky person that came by or that they were there on purpose and waiting to attack the man for whatever reason comes into the heads of thugs.

Either way, there is a man in a bad way in the Regional because of a thuggish assault and another down in Cork fighting for his life because of a similar attack.

mitresize5

the other guy was at a party in Francis St, number of individuals tunred up and were refused entry, they came back a short while later with weapons and beat the people at the party up with them ... one guy to withing an inch of his life ... they then burnt the house to the ground

dats Limerick ciiiiiitttttttttyyyyyyy

.... waiting for all those to tell me it could happen any where in Ireland, it does but it happens more in Limerick .... the quicker people start realising the place is f**ked the better and the faster something maybe done about ....

then the rest of us might get our city back

Insect Overlord

leakyboots wrote: »

For what, disagreeing??

I've PMed Silentcorner to say they can post in this thread again. Hopefully we can drop the issue now and get back to discussing the content of the OP again. Cheers.

liammur

Kess73 wrote: »

Just reading more about it in today's paper. What is being reported as having happened is that the garda and his wife were getting out of a car after getting a lift to the house of one of his wife's relatives. Three men then attacked the garda and left him in a bad way on the ground before leaving.

Then his wife went to ring the emergency services and the attackers then came back and took her iphone and handbag whilst she was making the call.

Just seems odd that the three guys were there when the car arrived and that they came back to rob the stuff rather than leaving and then coming back to rob the wife.

What it sounds like is that the attackers were in the area and just looking to attack whatever unlucky person that came by or that they were there on purpose and waiting to attack the man for whatever reason comes into the heads of thugs.

Either way, there is a man in a bad way in the Regional because of a thuggish assault and another down in Cork fighting for his life because of a similar attack.

The guard in question was based in Galway so wouldn't have been known to his attackers, so probably random. Something needs to be done though, something radical to cut this out e.g. cut off their dole for good.

Kess73

liammur wrote: »

The guard in question was based in Galway so wouldn't have been known to his attackers, so probably random. Something needs to be done though, something radical to cut this out e.g. cut off their dole for good.

You are probably right but his wife is from Limerick and the family/relative's house was very close to where the three attackers were.

It just seemed to have happened very quickly from when the couple left the car, going by the account given of the attack. And the bit about how they walked off and then came back to rob the wife almost as an afterthought just sounds odd. Then again who knows how that kind of thug thinks

To be honest I would prefer if it turned out to be a random attack (not that there is any such thing as a good attack) because the alternative of people being targeted because they are Gardai should be a sobering thought for the general public.


As for something radical being needed. It should simply be a case that the laws that are currently in place should be enforced by the judges when cases like this come in front of them. Start given the maximum sentence available for violent crimes and start making the offenders serve the full sentence. That might be a good start.

langdang

An article by Limerick people's favourite Independent reporter would suggest that this started as the random work of scummers without any of the "provocation/invitation to be assaulted" suggested by the "more to this story" vibe.

Countdown to the first habitual "them guards durnt do nuttin" poster to say "he shouldn't have chased them"

Persiancowboy

Spoke to a family member today who lives on St. Patrick's road and knows the injured Garda's wife's family very well.

The incident happened near Hilltop and seemingly involved the wife's bag being snatched when they got out of a car near St. Brigid's Church....there is a regular gang of vermin hanging around the Church and the Well. Garda apparently tried chasing them and was set upon....he seems to have fallen and hit his head on the steps of the Church as these were covered in plastic yesterday and were being photographed by the Gardai later in the day. A neighbour also had to go out with a bucket of water to clean blood off the steps before people could use them to access the church.

Would seem that this was a robbery/mugging that turned nasty.

langdang

Hope he's on the mend and won't have any long term injuries.

liammur

Something needs to be done for the people of Limerick. Galway gets another 300 jobs today, we get regeneration as our neighbours. The whole place is becoming depressing.

gaf1983

liammur wrote: »

Something needs to be done for the people of Limerick. Galway gets another 300 jobs today, we get regeneration as our neighbours. The whole place is becoming depressing.

Hopefully your prayers might soon be answered Liam... although the article seems to be just speculation at the moment:

http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/limerick-set-to-get-a-major-jobs-boost-1-4274559

Any update on the guard's condition?