Courier loses leg despite operation

THE brother of a courier shot by masked gunmen was preparing to tell him last night that despite the efforts of surgeons his leg would have to be amputated.

Patrick Dunne, 40, underwent an 11-hour emergency operation at Cork University Hospital on Thursday after raiders ambushed his vehicle, ransacked it and then blasted him in the back of the leg with a shotgun at point blank range.

Mr Dunne’s brother, Ted, said he had spoken to him before he went in for the operation.

“He asked me to tell them not to take his leg. The doctors were unbelievable, they did everything they could to reconstruct his leg. He knew it was severely damaged.” Mr Dunne said.

He was hoping Patrick would regain consciousness last night so he could personally break the bad news to him. A hospital spokesman described Patrick Dunne’s condition as “critical but stable”.

Ted Dunne said his phone had been constantly ringing with people offering messages of support.

Gardaí have been shocked by the viciousness of the attack, especially as Mr Dunne, who works for a courier company, wasn’t carrying any cash or valuables.

A team of 20 gardaí, from Bishopstown, Gurranabraher and Blarney, is working on the case. A senior Garda source said they would have to wait until Mr Dunne recovered sufficiently before they could interview him. He said that the shooting was particularly vicious, especially as Mr Dunne was a small man who was not going to pose any threat to armed robbers.

Mr Dunne, from St Joseph’s View, Riverstown, Glanmire, Co Cork, was ambushed by three men in two cars as he drove his van along the Carrigrohane Straight at around 5.45am on Thursday.

They took a number of documents from the van, but when they discovered no valuables one of the masked men shot Mr Dunne in a nearby field. He later crawled to the main road to call for help.

One of the robbers’ cars, a ’92 registered Toyota Carina, was found burned out at the scene.

Yesterday morning gardaí set up checkpoints in the area to ask passing motorists if they had seen any suspicious activity the previous day.

Gardaí in Gurranabraher are appealing for anybody with information to contact them at [phone].