Pensioner assaults warrant 5-year jail term, says mayor

There needs to be a mandatory five-year jail sentence for anyone found guilty of assaulting an elderly person Metropolitan Mayor of Limerick, Jerry O’Dea has urged after two pensioners in the city were viciously beaten and robbed.

A man in his 20s is being questioned by gardaí investigating the attacks on the two pensioners, both happening less than a week apart.

The first attack occurred in broad daylight last Thursday when an 80-year old man had his head “split open” by two men in the cubicle of the public toilets at the Roxboro Shopping Centre. The victim had taken out money from an ATM machine at the shopping centre seconds before the two men struck. The elderly man was taken to University Hospital Limerick where he received stitches across his head.