Petrol attack ‘never happened’

A YOUTH who claimed he had been doused in petrol and set alight in a late-night mugging has told gardaí the incident never happened.

Yesterday, gardaí, investigating what appeared to have been a brutal attack on Barrack Street in Cork early yesterday morning, said they now believed the incident never took place.

Gardaí are still determined to establish the cause of burns to Mark O’Connell’s body and wish to question him further. The 17-year-old claimed the attack took place as he was making his way home having just finished babysitting.