Savage thugs brutally beat Polish man
The 24-year-old ? possibly along with a friend ? was making his way home in the early hours of Sunday morning when four people, believed to be Irish, surrounded him at Boherbee in Tralee and brought him to the ground in what gardaí believe could be an unprovoked attack.
One of the four began to savagely beat the man, inflicting horrific injuries to his face and limbs.
Over a sustained period, the man suffered a broken nose, a broken leg, a dislocated ankle and a number of his teeth were broken and knocked out.
One witness described how one of the attackers sat on top of their victim while they persistently punched him.
The attackers fled and a passer-by immediately called the gardaí . So serious were the man?s injuries that gardaí could not wait for an ambulance and took him directly to Accident and Emergency at Kerry General Hospital.
Four people ? one of whom was a female wearing a dark top and white shorts ? were seen fleeing the scene immediately after the incident. They made their getaway up a dark lane that leads from Boherbee to Slatt?s Car Park.
The young victim, who is believed to have been living in Tralee for some time, has since undergone reconstructive surgery on his leg. His face is also seriously damaged and disfigured.
The attack has caused shock and outrage, not least among emergency service personnel who described the beating as particularly vicious.
Tralee-based Polish priest, Fr Krzystof Kupczakiewicz, was shocked and saddened to hear the news of the attack. He said that he condemns any attack of this nature and said that he planned to visit the victim in hospital. He said that incidents of racism or racist abuse in Tralee was, in his experience, rare.
The attack in Tralee is likely to attract national media attention after two Polish men died after a brutal attack in Drimnagh last month.
A 17-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of Pavel Kalite, one of the two Polish men brutally murdered in Drimnagh on February 23.
Gardaí confirmed that the boy was one of five previously questioned in connection with the brutal killing of Kalite and his friend Marius Szwajkos, who were attacked on Benbulbin Road.
29-year-old Pavel Kalite had been critically ill since the attack, which has already claimed the life of his 27-year-old friend Marius Szwajkos.
Both men were from Poland and during his visit to that country recently, Bertie Ahern described the killings as 'hooliganism at its worst'.
