Mr Harry McCartan, the 23-year-old man who was nailed to a fence and brutally assaulted at the weekend, struggled to tell reporters yesterday of his ordeal.
From the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Mr McCartan said he had no memory of the attack or of his assailants hammering six-inch nails through his hands and into the fence, and then bending the nails so that he was incapable of freeing himself.
When he gained partial consciousness with his hands still impaled on the fence early on Saturday morning, he had no idea what had happened. Firefighters at the scene cut away parts of the fence, and he was brought to hospital with the two blocks of wood still attached to his hands.
"When I woke up [in hospital] my knees were aching and my hands, and I saw all the blood running out of my eyes and my mouth and I just thought it was a dream," he said.
It was sometimes difficult to understand Mr McCartan because in sustaining injuries to virtually every part of his body his mouth, teeth and jaw and general facial area were also sore and swollen.
There was much political condemnation of the attack, but on a phone-in programme on Belfast City Beat radio station last night a surprising number of callers had very little sympathy for the victim, and quite a number went on air to condone the attack.
This attack is being portrayed as a "crucifixion", which seems to have won favour with those who carried out the assault or know who did it. Graffiti have appeared on a wall near where the assault took place, stating "Crucify the hoods - South Belfast UFF".
UDA sources said loyalists were responsible for the assault in the loyalist Seymour Hill estate in Dunmurry, Co Antrim, but added that it was not authorised by the organisation, which also goes under the UFF name.
Police also suspect that loyalists were to blame but said the attack was not sectarian (Mr McCartan is a Catholic). They are following a line of inquiry that loyalist vigilantes had applied their form of summary justice against people they believe were involved in car theft or "joyriding".
