Gardai are to send a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions after releasing three young men arrested yesterday in connection with an incident in which a pressurised air hose was placed against a teenager's back passage in a west Cork factory.
Detectives arrested the three men - aged 17, 19 and 22 - at their homes in west Cork under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act and brought them to Bandon Garda station for questioning.
They interviewed them about an alleged offence under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act following the assault on a 19-year-old man at Grainger Sawmills in Enniskeane last Thursday evening.
The men were released without charge shortly before their 12-hour custody limit expired and a file will be prepared for the DPP on the matter, a Garda spokesman said.
The investigation began after the man received life-threatening internal injuries when a pressurised air hose was placed against his rectum during a break in production after machinery at the sawmills broke down.
It is understood the incident lasted just a few seconds and was over before fellow staff members could intervene and stop it. The teenager made his way to the car park of the plant where he was discovered an hour later and rushed to hospital in Cork.
A spokesperson for Cork University Hospital yesterday said the teenager - who hasn't been named by gardai but was described by locals as "a very quiet sort of lad " - remained in a stable condition at the hospital.
Meanwhile, Grainger Sawmills yesterday issued a statement saying: "We are presently carrying out our own enquiry into the circumstances of this incident and a number of employees have been suspended until the inquiries have been completed. "We very much regret that this incident took place and our thoughts are with our injured colleague and his family and we hope that he makes a full and speedy recovery from the injuries sustained in the incident."