A man questioned about the attack on the Indian national said to gardaí: “These guys have the country ruined anyway.”

Ciaran Coughlan, aged 24, of Taylors Cross, Fedamore, Co Limerick; William Dundon, aged 39, of John Carew Park, Limerick; and Kathleen O’Sullivan, aged 25, of Taylors Cross, Fedamore, pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Court yesterday to charges in connection with the attacks.

Kathleen O’Sullivan, who has no previous convictions, phoned pizza delivery orders to two fast food outlets. When bringing the pizzas to specified locations, the delivery men were set upon by a group of men who included Coughlan and Dundon.

Detective Garda Fergal Hanrahan said a man not before the court, referred to as Mr X, was responsible for stabbing the Indian delivery man and taking his car after the victim abandoned it.

Det Gda Hanrahan said Coughlan chased the Indian delivery man as he ran for his life through streets. Badly wounded, the man threw off his shoes to run faster in order to get away.

Coughlan claimed he was carrying a wheel brace during the chase in order to calm down the pizza man, but gardaí believe he was armed with a knife.

Det Garda Hanrahan said Dundon’s role was peripheral.

Coughlan, in evidence, said what they did was not planned and they were highly intoxicated.

Cross-examined by John O’Sullivan, prosecuting, about his comment to gardaí that “these guys have the country ruined”, he denied that this was in reference to the Indian delivery man.

“I am not racist. I was talking about lawyers and about bankers who tell lies,” he said.

Brian McInerney, defending, said his client Kathleen O’Sullivan now has a young child and had moved back home to Co Limerick.

Judge Tom O’Donnell said it was an appalling case and adjourned sentencing to July 29.