Three released after questioning over taxi driver attack

Three men have been released without charge after being questioned by gardaí in relation to an attack on a taxi driver in Dublin early yesterday.

The men were arrested by gardaí investigating the incident which resulted in the victim being badly beaten and having his car stolen and burnt out in the early hours of yesterday morning. Gardaí are trying to establish if there was a racist motive behind the attack on the driver (32), originally from Pakistan.

Three suspects were arrested yesterday by gardaí in a follow up operation and were questioned at Lucan and Ronanstown Garda stations under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.

The men aged 19,21 and 28 years were released without charge late last night and gardaí are preparing a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

During the incident in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the taxi driver stopped and picked up three male passengers on the N4 at Palmerstown in west Dublin.

The passengers then threatened the taxi driver in his car and forced him to drive towards nearby Lucan. The driver told gardaí he believed his attackers were in their late teens to early 20s and were armed with a knife.

The men ordered the driver to take them to a secluded spot at Tubber Lane on the outskirts of Lucan. When they arrived there the driver was told to get out of the car and was beaten by the men, who then drove off in the man’s taxi, a black BMW.

After the injured party was left by the roadside he managed to raise the alarm and a Garda operation swung into action.

The men who had stolen his car crashed the vehicle into a ditch on Tubber Lane, just a short distance from where the taxi driver was beaten. The car was later found at that spot on fire and was completely destroyed by the flames.

The driver was taken to hospital for treatment for his injuries, which sources said are not life threatening. He has since been discharged from Connolly Hospital and has already been interviewed by gardaí.