A DUBLIN man who went to meet a date from gay dating site Grindr was subject to a horrific attack when it was revealed he had in fact been lured to meet a group of teenage thugs.
52-year-old Marc Power was left with facial facial injuries and a destroyed car when a group of teenagers armed with hammers and other weapons pulled him from his vehicle and attacked him.
Originally posting on Facebook that he had been the "victim of a premeditated homophobic attack here in Dublin", Mr Power shared photos of his injuries and said he hoped the "scum will be rounded up".
Mr Power then appeared on Irish radio's Niall Boylan Show to describe his ordeal, where he said he had been contacted on Grindr by a man who "seemed like a nice person".
They agreed to meet by a cinema in Coolock, Dublin, and Mr Power told listeners that the Grindr profile asked him to meet in a laneway behind the cinema.
“He was trying to get me down this laneway, I said no," Mr Power said. "I pulled in and to the right of me, there was a bunch of bushes next to that lane.
“All of a sudden, literally a swarm of teenage boys came out of the bushes. They pulled my door open, I didn’t have any time to react, they started trying to hit me and punch me in the face.
Mr Power spent the night in A&E (Credit: Marc Power)“They had weapons, different types of tools. One of them had a hammer which he used to smash my windshield and the other one smashed my wing mirrors.
“I would say they were mid to late teens, perhaps even a bit younger or older. There was a gang of them and they were calling me a paedophile and a pervert.
“They were laughing as well, which was the thing that really shocked me. To them, this was just pure entertainment.”
“This was premeditated, they knew exactly what they were doing. They were trying to kill me and one of them was like a feral rat.
“The thing that saved me is I pushed my head in the car, they were hitting me on the legs. They were trying to grab the keys out of the ignition.
“I thought to myself ‘the only way I’m going to get out of this is to get attention’.
"People were starting to come out from the cinema and I just put my hand on the horn and honked and honked and honked, non-stop.
(Marc Power)“Then the guy lashed at the windshield and broke it and hit my leg once more.
"Then they were all sort of laughing. Calling me names, a f****t, a paedophile, a pervert, this kind of stuff.
“They disappeared like animals back into the bushes and then they were gone.
"They were laughing, this was the thing. God knows what would have happened if I’d agreed to go down the laneway.
“The only thing has me here today is I kept my head inside the car. They’re just savages.”
Mr Power spent the night in the emergency room in a local hospital, where he told friends on Facebook that he was "ok but f*****g angry".
Ireland voted overwhelmingly to legalise same-sex marriage in 2015, but it is deluded to believe that homophobia no longer exists in the country.
