Gang which attacked taxi believed to be behind rampage through Cork housing estates

Gardaí believe that the gang responsible for attacking a moving taxi with iron bars in Cork at the weekend was also behind a rampage through nearby housing estates during which several parked cars were damaged.

It is hoped that CCTV could lead to the identification of some of the ringleaders involved in the sequence of incidents, which occurred late on Saturday and into the early hours of Sunday morning.

Gardaí got multiple reports from residents in Donscourt in Wilton about a gang of at least five hooded youths armed with what’s believed to have been golf clubs or iron bars running riot through the estate.

They kicked or smashed the wing mirrors off at least nine cars parked on the roadsides as they shouted and roared their way along the normally quiet suburban roads.

Several more cars parked in nearby Woodbrook Grove suffered similar damage around the same time.

Gardaí have confirmed that they are also investigating a number of similar criminal damage incidents to cars parked in the Uam Var Drive area of Curraheen, less than a kilometre west.

It’s not clear which area was hit first but it appears that the gang travelled west, from Curraheen, through Woodbrook and Donscourt, and up towards the Wilton roundabout where the taxi attack occurred.

Gardaí said no arrests have been made and investigations are ongoing.

TAXI TERROR: PJ is talking to Karen who was in a taxi in Wilton on Saturday night which was attacked by youths with iron bars

— 96fm Opinion Line (@OpinionLine96) August 27, 2019

A woman who was travelling with her partner in the taxi, and who did not want to give her real name, told the Opinion Line on Cork's 96FM today of the terrifying experience. She said they flagged down a taxi in the city centre sometime after 3am on Sunday and as they approached the Wilton roundabout, the taxi was attacked by five to six hooded teens.

The taxi drove on but went around the roundabout a second time when it was attacked again, suffering damage to the driver’s window and the back window. The woman said she doesn’t know why the driver drove around the second time as he did not have a dashcam. When he parked, a second taxi stopped and the driver said the door to her taxi had been damaged by the teens who had “run down Glasheen Road”.

“It was a very frightening experience. Wilton generally is a very quiet place. It was very scary. I would advise people to be wary of gangs. If I had been driving on my own, I would have crashed," the woman said.

The woman thought that the taxi driver should have brought them home as it was only five minutes away and then could have gone back to await the gardaí. He charged them for the journey: “I shouldn’t have paid him, but I just wanted to go home. He didn’t ask for our details.”