Pedestrian hit by motorcycle remains in hospital after multiple operations

Gardaí are appealing to anyone with information  to contact them at Gurranabraher Garda Station on 021 494 6200, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.

A pedestrian hit by a motorcycle escaping a suspected gangland-style hit on a violent criminal's home in Cork last Friday remains in hospital after multiple operations.

The man, who is in his 60s, suffered internal bleeding, a punctured lung, and a broken leg when an armed man, fleeing a suspected attempted hit, crashed into him while he was walking on Churchfield Rd in Cork city.

He is still in hospital but his condition is said to be stable.

The suspected attempted hit was on the home of Gavin Sheehan in nearby Shanakiel in Cork City’s northside at 5.40pm on Friday.

Two armed men went to the property and one of them smashed windows before fleeing the scene on a motorbike, it is understood.

The pedestrian was knocked down on Churchfield Rd at 6.10pm and was hospitalised.

The suspects then fled on foot, dumping the motorbike at the scene.

Gardaí later found a firearm at the scene.

A man in his 20s was arrested. He was later released without charge and a file is being prepared for the DPP.

The second man remains at large, it is understood.

Garda appeal

Gardaí are appealing to anyone with information on these incidents or road users with video footage to contact them at Gurranabraher Garda Station on 021 494 6200, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.

Sheehan, who has 73 previous convictions, was released from prison in recent weeks after he served eight years for shooting a young woman in the neck.

He admitted that he had been a garda informer at his sentencing hearing in that case, having tipped gardaí off about drug dealers, gun dealers, and criminals in general in the past.

Sheehan shot his victim Ciara Sheehan, then 21, who he is not related to, in the neck but the bullet missed major arteries and swift surgery saved her life.

Sheehan had been in a dispute with the family of Ciara’s boyfriend, Dylan Cunningham.

She was shot when she was in the family home in Hollywood estate in Cork City on May 14, 2016.

In a victim impact statement given after the trial, she said that she was "completely broken" following the attack and was no longer "the happy Ciara" she once was.

The injured pedestrian was the second innocent bystander seriously injured due to violent criminal activity last week.

A child was seriously injured when masked men armed with suspected slash hooks broke into her home in Charleville, Co Cork, earlier last week.

The 12-year-old girl, who had been in her home with her mother and young siblings, was so badly injured when the men broke into her home that she had to be transferred for emergency surgery from Cork University Hospital to Children’s Health Ireland at Temple Street in Dublin with a suspected fractured skull and brain bleed.