A 37-year-old web designer is recovering from a horror ordeal after he was brutally assaulted and held against his will in a disturbing incident on Sunday.

Gardai in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, are investigating the shocking event which happened shortly after 5.30pm on Sunday.

Sources say that officers are investigating allegations of aggravated burglary, assault, threats to kill and false imprisonment of the victim, and a forensic examination of his apartment took place.

Completed

The dispute is believed to centre around a website which was due to be completed but has not yet been finalised.

The victim of the attack was targeted after he got into his car in the Derravarra House complex in Mullingar on Sunday evening.

The Pakistani national, who has asked not to be named, was allegedly pulled from his car by a father and son who had arrived in the Co Westmeath town from their home in Dublin's south inner city.

A close pal of the victim explained that after the man was taken from the car, "he was punched in the head rapidly and repeatedly".

The suspects allegedly then took the victim's keys and dragged him back into his apartment.

He then faced a nightmare 40-minute ordeal in which the two men, aged in their 50s and 20s, ransacked the property and continued to make threats against the terrified man.

"They were looking for a computer and told him to sit down. They busted the other side of the man's face. He then produced the computer," a pal of the victim told the Herald.

"He ended up having to get two stitches in the face and two in the back of his head.

STARK

"One of the worst aspects of this was that they left the man with a stark warning in which they threatened to kill him if he went to gardai, but this matter was reported almost as soon as it ended," the pal added.

It is understood that the argument centred around a business dispute between the web designer and the two men who are suspected of attacking him.

It is believed that the suspects in the case became "annoyed" because they had previously paid a four-figure deposit for work that was not completed on time.

Online Editors