Gardaí identify suspects and confident of arrests after attack on pregnant woman
By Eoin English
Gardaí investigating an alleged assault on a pregnant woman in Cork city say they are following a definite line of enquiry and are confident of making arrests.
"Suspects have been picked on CCTV and we are confident that we will be able to arrest the three youths involved," a senior garda spokesman said this evening.
Detectives have been trawling CCTV footage from the city centre in a bid to track down a gang of youths, believed to be aged between 15 and 17, since news of Sunday's attack emerged.
One of the gang is alleged to have launched an unprovoked attack on the six-months pregnant 25-year-old mother of one on Princes St as she walked home from work at around 7.30pm on Sunday.
Sintija, originally from Latvia, was punched in the face, suffered bruises and was left badly shaken by the incident.
She said her only concern was for the safety of her unborn child, and that she was lucky that the attack did not knock her to the ground.
Derek Collins, who witnessed the alleged assault, contacted gardaí and followed the teen gang as they fled towards Paul St.
However, he said he was told by gardaí here was no garda available to respond to the incident.
Sintija’s husband, Zuhair, paid tribute to Mr Collins for standing up for his wife, and to the people who expressed outrage at the attack.
The alleged assault comes just days after the city centre was awarded a Purple Flag for its safe night-time economy.
The incident and city centre policing resources are set to be discussed at a meeting of the joint policing committee on Monday
