TWO THUGS LEAVE TOURIST ‘BLINDED’
Man savagely beaten and robbed can’t fly home due to his injuries
A TOURIST has been left partially blind after being savagely beaten and robbed by thugs on Saturday night.
Patrick Finn was standing outside a restaurant when two thieves knocked him to the ground and then kicked him in the head before making off with his wallet and phone.
The Irishman, who lives in Wales, was in Dublin for the weekend with his girlfriend.
His relaxing break ended after he was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital following the attack on George’s Street. Patrick said doctors told him the damage to his eye could be permanent.
He added: “I’ve been examined by the ophthalmologist and there is very bad nerve damage. I’ll have to stop driving for 12 months and possibly for ever.
“I’m seeing double out of my left eye and my other eye is drooping.
“I’ll need an operation to repair the nerves and muscles that move the eye.”
The 43-year-old told Joe Duffy’s Liveline on RTE yesterday: “I went to take a phone call and next thing I got a slap on the front of the head and a slap at the back of the head. All I heard was, ‘Give me your f***ing money’.
“There was two of them – one came from behind, one came from the front.” The attack caused him to have a seizure leaving doctors concerned he might have brain damage.
Patrick said: “I woke up after being unconscious, I was taken to hospital. I’ve had three CT scans. They said an MRI will show them better detail.
“They’re doing an EEG scan of my brain as well, there’s a load of tests to be done still.”
He thanked two women in their 30s who were passing by and helped him. Patrick, a civil servant and primary carer for his father who is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, is trying to raise the ferry fare back to Wales as he is unable to fly.
He told the Irish Mirror: “They took all my credit cards, my nearest bank is in Newry. To access cash I’d have to go there and travel home via Scotland.
“At the moment I’m living off the generosity of kind people here at the hospital.”
I got a slap and all I heard was, ‘Give me your f***ing money
PATRICK FINN
ON BEING ATTACKED IN DUBLIN