Burns attack victim interviewed

DETECTIVES from Limerick travelled to Cork last night to interview the Polish man who was badly burned in an attack over the weekend.

Gardaí were anxious to establish the exact location and time of the attack.

A spokesman for the investigating team said he expected last night’s interview would significantly move the case forward.

Petrol was poured on the victim and set alight.

He received severe burns to his head and hands.

The man, aged 35, was staying with friends in the Raheen area of the city and had gone out on the town at about 8pm on Saturday.

He arrived back at the house at 2am and when those in the house saw the burns they brought him to the nearby Mid Western Regional Hospital. He was transferred to the burns unit at Cork University Hospital and his condition was said to be critical.

Gardaí have been going through CCTV from numerous locations in the city to try and pinpoint the attack location.

He had just returned after a Christmas holiday in Poland and stopped off in Limerick before travelling on to Tipperary where he resides and works.

Meanwhile, the Limerick man shot and wounded in a city centre attack on Friday last is still recovering in the Mid Western Regional Hospital where his condition is said to be serious but stable.

Jonathan Fitzgerald, 18, was shot in the neck when a gunman wearing a balaclava opened fire with a handgun at Parnell Street at about 5.40pm.

The shooting is being linked to the murder of Noel Crawford in December 2006. Mr Crawford, who worked as a store security man, had no links to crime. However a man known to him is understood to have carried out Friday’s shooting in the belief that Mr Fitzgerald knew the main suspect of the Crawford murder.