GARDAÍ HOPE to interview for a second time an English teenager who lost a finger in what he described as an attack in Dublin on St Patrick's Day.
Guy Wallace (17), from Somerset, said he was walking in the O'Connell Street area at 8pm when he was confronted by up to five youths and assaulted.
His finger was severed at the base during the attack and was not recovered from the area in Cumberland St, which runs parallel to O'Connell St, where he was found by gardaí.
Gardaí wish to re-interview Mr Wallace, who returned to England yesterday, because he provided details of the attack in media interviews which they say he did not give in his statement to gardaí.
Mr Wallace told RTÉ radio that the attack began when he passed about five young men who asked him where he was from, to which he replied "London".
"I could see they were getting very aggressive and I asked them not to hurt me, but before I knew it they hit me in the eyes and on the head. I was on the floor so I couldn't see what happened but all I remember is having an excruciating pain in my right hand. When I stood up, they had gone and I was screaming in pain for help and eventually a garda found me and took me to hospital," he said.
Mr Wallace, a rugby player and keen pianist, said that he had undergone surgery in the Mater Hospital and was going back to England yesterday to attend a plastics unit to see if it would be possible to get a prosthetic finger.
When questioned as to what he believed happened to his finger the teenager said: "My guess is that they put it over a kerb and stamped on it. The surgeon said it looked like a bite mark, but I can't believe that."
The young man arrived in Dublin with friends on Monday morning to celebrate St Patrick's Day and a friend's birthday.
Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said he did not have specific details about how the teenager lost his finger because the full facts had yet to be established.
He conceded there was "confusion" as to whether the teenager lost his finger in an attack as he claimed. "Our business is to establish the facts, the evidence," he said. "I've spoken to my Assistant Commissioner in Dublin who has deployed a detective superintendent to take charge of the investigation. We'll see what comes out of it," the commissioner said.
Mr Wallace said his experience was "not representative of the good spirit" in the city on the day. He was "unlucky" to have been attacked and that such an incident "could have happened anywhere".
His father William told RTÉ that Guy could remember little of the attack other than that he was going to get a hamburger and some money from a cash machine.
"He was approached, asked where he came from, he was then attacked and he was apparently hit in the face," his father said.
"I understand there were quite a number of incidents. It's not peculiar to Ireland. I think it could happen anywhere in the world and of course it could have been much worse," he said.
The commissioner said he believed Ireland was safe, despite the media's focus on the attack.