A taxi driver has told how he feared for his life after he was attacked and beaten repeatedly around the head by two passengers who then robbed him and stole his vehicle.
John Forde (59) was attacked just as he was about to drop off two young men whom he had picked up in his taxi in Cork city centre early on Friday morning.
"I thought I was going to be killed - I really thought I was going to die on the spot," Mr Forde told PJ Coogan on The Opinion Line on Cork's 96FM this morning.
“They caught me from behind so I had no chance of defending myself and even I had managed to defend myself, what chance would I have had with two people.”
Mr Forde told how he had picked up the two young men at the taxi rank near Black Tie at the top of Patrick Street around 4.45am on Friday morning.
They asked him to take to them to Spring Lane in Blackpool and paid him in advance with one man sitting in the front passenger's seat and the second man getting in the back seat.
When he got to Spring Lane, the two men asked Mr Forde to take him to Dublin Hill and when they got there, they asked him to take him to Glen Heights Road.
“That’s where it happened - on Glen Heights Road, one guy asked me did they owe me any more than they paid me so I just told them that they were grand, that they were covered.
“Then the chap in front asked me did I have any money so I told them I had no money because I had just started my shift and just had a float of a few euro.
“The fellow in the back seat caught me from behind and the fellow in the front seat just punched and punched me - they got out of the car and grabbed the car keys from me.”
Mr Forde was dragged from his car and beaten around the head before his two assailants reached into his pocket, stole €50 and drove off in his green 2011 registered Toyota Avensis.
Mr Forde managed to make his way to Watercourse Road Garda station and was taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where he was treated for a fractured eye socket.
“My wife just cried when she learned what had happened to me and she just said ‘You’re not going no more late at night, you’re not going out no more,’” he said. “I’m driving taxis 33 years and this is the first experience like this that I’ve had and it’s scary - driving taxis is what I do. I’m 59, who is going to employ a 59-yearold?”
A self employed taxi driver working with ABC Cabs in Cork, Mr Forde expects to be out of work for four to six weeks but he can’t claim welfare because he is self -employed.
The Opinion Line have organised a fund-raising table quiz for him at St Vincent’s GAA club on Cork on Thursday at 7.30pm with PJ Coogan acting as quiz master.
Gardaí under Supt Tom Myers of Mayfield Garda station have begun examining CCTV footage from Patrick Street in a bid to identify Mr Forde's attackers.
Gardaí are also hoping that a forensic examination of the car which was found crashed in Kinvara Close in Ballyvolane will also help them identify the culprits.
Anyone who witnessed the men getting into the taxi or with any information that can assist the investigation is asked to contact Mayfield Garda station on (021) 4558510.
