THESE are the horrific injuries suffered by a man lured to a meeting on a dating app before being attacked by a gang of teenage boys with hammers.
Marc Power was left with gaping head and hand wounds after being being battered by “savages” posing as a gay man on Grindr.
His car was also badly damaged in the incident, which happened at around 10.30pm on Tuesday on the Malahide Rd in north Dublin.
Marc, 56, said he had been watching TV at home when he was contacted by someone on the app.
He said: “We got into a conversation, it seemed like a nice person, they said the same about me. They asked if I’d like to meet, so I agreed against my better judgment.
“We agreed to meet over at the Odeon cinema in Coolock, just at the entrance. It was just after 10.30. I drove over, the guy had sent me a few messages while I was driving over saying he was coming down this laneway behind the cinema.
“They were trying to lure me into this darker, quieter place. I didn’t do that. I just said we’ll meet next to the door.”
‘SWARM OF TEENAGE BOYS CAME OUT OF BUSHES’
He told Classic Hits’ Niall Boylan Show: “He was trying to get me down this laneway, I said no. I pulled in and to the right of me, there was a bunch of bushes next to that lane.
“All of a sudden, literally a swarm of teenage boys came out of the bushes. They pulled my door open, I didn’t have any time to react, they started trying to hit me and punch me in the face.
“They had weapons, different types of tools. One of them had a hammer which he used to smash my windshield and the other one smashed my wing mirrors.
“I would say they were mid to late teens, perhaps even a bit younger or older. There was a gang of them and they were calling me a paedophile and a pervert.
“They were laughing as well, which was the thing that really shocked me. To them, this was just pure entertainment.”
‘THIS WAS PRE-MEDITATED’
He continued: “This was pre-meditated, they knew exactly what they were doing. They were trying to kill me and one of them was like a feral rat.
“The thing that saved me is I pushed my head in the car, they were hitting me on the legs. They were trying to grab the keys out of the ignition.
“I thought to myself ‘the only way I’m going to get out of this is to get attention’.
“People were starting to come out from the cinema and I just put my hand on the horn and honked and honked and honked, non-stop.
“Then the guy lashed at the windshield and broke it and hit my leg once more.
“Then they were all sort of laughing. Calling me names, a f****t, a paedophile, a pervert, this kind of stuff.
‘SAVAGES’
“They disappeared like animals back into the bushes and then they were gone.
“They were laughing, this was the thing. God knows what would have happened if I’d agreed to go down the laneway.
“The only thing has me here today is I kept my head inside the car. They’re just savages.”
Marc said while he initially believed there were up to 10 youths involved in the attack, a witness told him there were four and they appeared to be in their early teens.
He spent five and a half hours in Beaumont Hospital undergoing various X-rays to his head and shoulders, though miraculously escaped without broken bones.
In a statement, gardai said: “Gardai are investigating an assault that took place on Tuesday 15th October at approximately 10.30pm near the Malahide Road in Coolock.
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“A male (early 50s) received non-life threatening injuries and was taken to Beaumont Hospital for treatment.”
The incident comes just weeks after a Brazilian gay man said he was beaten with an iron bar for kissing his boyfriend outside his flat in north Dublin.
Danilo Matta was struck in the mouth after being surrounded by the gang of six teenagers.