Gardaí have appealed to the public for help after a man attending a bowling match was attacked by masked men with a baseball bat and had of a large sum of cash stolen from him.
The man, who is his late 30s and from north Cork, was attending an unofficial score of bowls near Fermoy on Saturday afternoon and evening when he was attacked and robbed by a three-man gang.
The event, which was not an official score sanctioned by Ból Chuman na hÉireann, had involved 10 matches on Saturday afternoon and drew a crowd of up to 60 people to Glenabo in Fermoy.
Punters were betting large sums on the various scores and it’s understood that the victim of the robbery had won what gardaí described as “a substantial amount of cash” which he had put in his jacket pocket.
The score had finished and most punters had gone home and only a handful were left when a grey Mercedes pulled up on the road just as the victim was preparing to head home at about 7.15pm
Two men wearing balaclavas and carrying a baseball bat jumped from the car which was being driven by a third masked man and they began attacking the victim who tried to protect himself.
The man with the baseball bat hit the injured party a number of times around the head and upper body as his accomplice pulled the man’s jacket from him and they made off with the jacket and cash.
The two jumped into the car, which sped off to the south east in the direction of Cappagh Cross as the alarm was raised and the emergency services and gardaí arrived to the scene.
The injured man was taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where he was treated for a broken collarbone and other injuries following the sustained attack by the two robbers.
The area, where the attack took place is a remote rural area and not covered by CCTV footage, but gardaí have begun examining CCTV footage around Fermoy to see if they can spot the Mercedes.
And they have appealed to anyone who was in the general Fermoy area on Saturday afternoon and evening and may have seen the vehicle to contact them at Fermoy Garda Station on 025-82100.
