Police have described as barbaric a so-called punishment attack in which a 23-year-old man was nailed to a wooden fence and then assaulted.
In what is being labelled a "crucifixion attack", men using six-inch nails impaled the hands of Harry McCartan on the fence near Dunmurry on the outskirts of Belfast. Mr McCartan, from Poleglass in west Belfast, was taken to hospital with his two hands still affixed to two pieces of the fence that a fire crew had cut away to free the victim.
He was in a semi-conscious condition on arrival at the Royal Victoria Hospital. He was so badly bloodied and beaten about the head, arms, hands and legs that his father could only identify him by a tattoo.
A hospital spokesman said that Mr McCartan, who has "joyriding" convictions, was in a stable condition last night. He was found slumped by the fencing close to a red Metro car.
Doctors managed to remove the wooden blocks from his hands. There was concern that he might lose the use of one or both hands but it is now hoped that this will not happen.
The victim, a Catholic, was found in the loyalist Seymour Hill estate a few miles from his home. Some reports blamed a loyalist paramilitary vigilante gang for the assault although police, while refusing to say who they believe responsible, say the attack was not sectarian.
A trail of blood led from where he was found to the Metro which was recently bought for about £90 in Portrush. "It's a typical runabout vehicle bought to ferry car thieves about," said one Police Service of Northern Ireland officer.
The issue of responsibility is also confused by the fact that while he was attacked in a loyalist area, a BMW car possibly used by his attackers was discovered in nationalist west Belfast with two bloodstained baseball bats inside. It had been stolen from the Dunmurry area.
The Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Belfast, Mr Alex Maskey, who was attending a commemorative rally in north Belfast yesterday for victims of car thieves, said he was certain that republicans were not responsible. "As far as I am concerned republicans had no act or part in it whatsoever," he told UTV.
Supt Gerry Murray, who is leading the investigation, appealed for public assistance to find those responsible. "People must have heard screaming and they must have heard a commotion," he said.
"I have never come across anything so barbaric. This is a young man who was set upon by an unknown group who brutally beat him and then nailed him to a post," added Supt Murray.
Alliance victims spokeswoman Ms Eileen Bell described the attack as a "crucifixion". Those who carried it out were "spineless, sick animals", she said.
"This was an act of pure evil. Those behind it are barbaric cowards, and I would ask the community to assist the police in any way possible, before this happens again. No one has the right to take the law into their own hands like this, no matter what someone has done in the past," added Ms Bell.
