Attacked Chinese man fighting for life

AN ATTACK that left a Chinese businessman fighting for his life was so ferocious that he lost almost all his teeth, it emerged last night.

The savage beating happened early on Friday morning and was described as completely unprovoked by a garda source, who revealed the majority of the man’s teeth were kicked out.

The 50-year-old, who owns a takeaway restaurant, was walking through Dublin’s Temple Bar district with a friend when they were attacked by two men.

He remains in a critical condition in hospital. Two men were yesterday charged in connection with the assault, part of a wave of violence in the last number of days, that has left three people, the businessman and two young men, seriously injured in attacks in the capital.

In the wake of the violence, Fine Gael’s Olivia Mitchell criticised both the Justice Minister Michael McDowell and the Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne.

“The illusion of official crime statistics is daily shattered by the evidence of our own eyes,” the Fine Gael frontbencher said.

“Violent street crime and vicious assaults against a person resulting in fatalities are now common place. And yet official Ireland led by the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner continue to peddle the myth of decreasing crime rates. It’s time they got real.”

Two young men remain seriously ill following separate attacks in the last number of days.

A 21-year-old suffered wounds to his chest after being stabbed during a row on Harrington Street, in Dublin’s south inner city. The attack took place around 3.40am on Saturday morning.

And the family of David Fox maintained their bedside vigil at Beaumont Hospital four days after he suffered serious head injuries during a brawl.

The 19-year-old was kicked in the head during the row in the Goatstown area of south Dublin.

Following another incident in Temple Bar, three men in their early 20s have been charged with public order offences after disturbances in the Temple Bar area of Dublin yesterday morning.

The men, one of whom was also charged with possession of a knife, have been released on bail and are to appear in court at a later date.

Gardaí said a fourth man was taken to hospital with facial injuries and is expected to be charged later.

The incident that led to the arrests began shortly after 2am yesterday. It is understood four men were involved in an attack on one other man, who fled to a club close by.

When gardaí arrived, two of the alleged attackers violently resisted arrest.

They were eventually arrested and taken to Pearse Street Garda station, where they were charged under the Public Order Act.