'Gutless thugs' - Mayor's fury after man badly beaten in unprovoked attack on Kilkenny's Hebron Road

Kilkenny Gardai are on the hunt for two individuals who attacked and beat a man who was walking home in the early hours of Sunday morning on the Hebron Road, near Nowlan Park.

The man was punched from behind and repeatedly kicked while on the ground by two men who Mayor Andrew McGuinness describes as 'gutless thugs'.

"I have seen how badly this man was beaten. I know him and his family and I can safely say that he is an honest, hardworking, likeable family man who absolutely did not deserve this," Mayor McGuinness told Kilkenny Live.

"Two men attacked him from behind, unprovoked, in the dark of night. It takes a gutless thug to do something like that and I hope no stone goes unturned in finding them and bringing them to justice," he said.
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“I have spoken with the victim and I was horrified to hear the details of what had happened to him. He was knocked to the ground when he received a cowardly punch to his head from behind. When he was on the ground he was repeatedly kicked in the head, face and body. You can actually see the outline of a shoe on his face. He is lucky to be alive and to not have any life long issues as a result.

“The victim said it could have been a whole lot worse. It could have been an elderly person. He worries about the next victim simply because he saw how far these guys were willing to go. They even threatened him that they would come back for him if he reported the incident,” said Mayor McGuinness.

"The fact that they didn't care how far they were going speaks volumes about these people. I'm calling on anybody in the area who has a CCTV camera at their home or a passing car with a dash cam. Even if you don’t have the footage of the attack, you may have footage of the two individuals in that area at the time of the incident," he said.

"This is just another example of why we need our CCTV scheme expanded and fully operational as a matter of urgency. Proper video footage of an incident like this can absolutely help identify the culprits," concluded Mayor McGuinness.

“As Mayor of Kilkenny I’m calling on Kilkenny Gardai and Kilkenny County Council to use the €400,000 we have already allocated for roughly 20 additional CCTV cameras in the city as a matter of urgency. This simply cannot be delayed any further,” concluded Mayor McGuinness.