THREE MEN broke into the isolated rural home of an elderly couple by kicking the front door down before beating the retired pensioners, stabbing the 65-year-old man in the hand and using an electric shock Taser gun on him.
A firearm was also used to threaten the couple and they were told their fingers were about to be cut off during the violent attack in Co Longford in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The three attackers were arrested when neighbours saw men they did not recognise outside the house where the incident took place and rang gardaí.
The suspects have links to gangland crime and are from Ballyfermot in west Dublin and Dublin’s south inner city. Gardaí believe they are known to gangland criminals in the midlands and that it was this connection that brought them into the area yesterday. They do not believe the robbery was their primary reason for being in Longford.
The elderly couple’s ordeal began at about 1.20 am yesterday when the three attackers kicked down the hall door of their home at Fisherstown near Clondra and demanded money. When the raiders were unable to find any cash they assaulted the couple, aged 74 and 65, leaving them badly bruised on the head, arms and hands.
The raiders threatened that their fingers would be cut off unless cash was produced. The couple were eventually locked in the bathroom of the house.
Garda sources said while the weapon was a pellet gun, or gat gun, it would have looked like a conventional firearm to the victims.
“This was a completely innocent couple savagely attacked in their own house,” said one Garda source.
A call was made to gardaí from inside the house as the raid was under way but it is understood the caller was unable to communicate with gardaí.
Units from Longford station sped to the scene once alerted by neighbours and arrested the three suspects as they tried to escape on foot. The men, two in their 30s and one in his 20s, were taken to Longford Garda station.
The scene of the attack was sealed off overnight. It underwent a full forensic examination yesterday by members of the Garda Technical Bureau.
The victims are recovering in Roscommon General Hospital. They are said to be traumatised by the attack but their injuries are not life-threatening.
