EXCLUSIVE | 

Exposed: Evil gangster who strangled, stabbed and threw bleach in young woman’s face

Judge blasts witnesses who stood by as woman was headbutted on Limerick street

Today at 08:16

This is the evil gangland criminal who callously strangled a young woman with a phone cord, stabbed her with a key, threw bleach in her face and told her “this is where you are going to die”.

Highly-volatile criminal Fintan Lynch (43), who has a history of violence against women and was once a member of the McCarthy-Dundon gang, carried out the sickening attack which a judge described as “savagery” in Limerick city last summer.

Twisted Lynch initially attacked the woman and headbutted her on Parnell Street in the city before luring her back into his apartment where he viciously tortured her for an hour.

“I thought I was going to die that night. I begged for my life,” the victim, who asked not be named, told the Sunday World.

“I really thought I was going to die. It changed me as a person. I have PTSD and I’m a nervous wreck now.”

After being subjected to an hour-long assault, the victim managed to escape from his apartment and ran for help – but Lynch chased after her and repeatedly stabbed her with car keys.

Shockingly, when Lynch initially attacked the woman on the street, passers-by who saw what was unfolding did nothing to help.

“Nobody even tried to help me. They didn’t even say ‘stop’. One person was laughing,” she said.

Judge Tom O’Donnell said the ambivalence of people who witnessed the first assault on the street was extraordinary.

“From the video footage there are a number of witnesses across the road in clear sight. He is punching her. Not one lent assistance or rang gardai. It is a very sad indictment on our society,” he said.

Lynch, who is originally from Southill but has an address at Parnell Street, Limerick city, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years after he recently pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Court to false imprisonment, three assaults causing harm and production of a weapon.

He has a long history of involvement in serious crime and had once been part of the McCarthy-Dundon gang, but was later a key figure in a split against the Dundon brothers.

Lynch was caught in a hotel with an Uzi submachine gun and silencer while wearing a bullet-proof vest just days after being released from prison in 2009. He claimed he had the weapon for his protection after his brother had been shot, but gardai suspected he had been planning to carry out a gang hit for the McCarthy-Dundon gang.

At his sentence hearing for the attack on the woman, prosecuting barrister John O’Sullivan said Lynch and the victim had been seeing each other for nine months prior to the early hours of July 18, 2022.

Gardai responded to a 999 call at around 1.30am that a female had been assaulted by a male.

“They spoke to a lady in distress on Davis Street. She had visible injuries. The accused was arrested,” said Mr O’Sullivan.

Just over an hour earlier, Lynch had assaulted, beaten and headbutted the victim on Parnell Street.

“He prevailed upon her to go into his apartment. He punched and beat her, attempted strangulation with a cord of a mobile phone, stuck a tweezers in her and threw bleach in her face. He said he was going to put sugar in Dettol, boil it and throw it at her,” said Mr O’Sullivan.

The court heard Lynch also told the victim she “doesn’t deserve to live” and “this is where you are going to die.”

“He tortured me. He had me held hostage for an hour in his flat where stabbed me and choked me and threw bleach over my face,” the victim told the Sunday World.

While Lynch was choking her with the phone cord the victim begged him to stop and said she couldn’t breathe. “That’s the point, you c***,” said Lynch, the court heard.

Mr O’Sullivan said Lynch told her he was going to get her father to give him €10,000 to let her go.

The prosecuting barrister said the victim’s phone was in her car.

“Lynch was looking for ‘relaxers.’ She said she might have some in her car. He brought her down to the car. He started looking for tablets.”

The victim said: “The only way I got out was I lied to him and told him I had relaxers in the car so I could get out of the flat.”

“Then, when his back was turned, I ran but he caught me and stabbed me with the keys of my car over 10 times. I really thought I was going to die. He 100 per cent wanted me dead. He kept saying, ‘you’re going to die tonight’.”

Thankfully, a man passing by intervened, allowing the woman to get away.

She revealed that the attack began just because she told Lynch she was heading home.

“It was all because I wanted to go home to my kids,” she said, adding that she hopes that by coming forward she will help other victims to do the same.

“I just hope my story will help someone get out before what happened me will happen them.”

The victim suffered bruising on her face, a fractured nose, ligature marks on her neck from the attempted strangulation, her eyes required a wash-out from the bleach and wounds from the car key, and she has post-traumatic stress disorder and mental health difficulties.

She declined to make a victim impact statement but did tell gardai she was terrified and an eyewitness heard her say, “Stop, stop — you’re going to kill me.”

Lynch’s convictions include robbery, arson, assault causing harm and possession of a firearm in suspicious circumstances.

Det Garda Bryan Guilfoyle told the court there was an element of torture to the attack.

Mark Nicholas SC, who represented Lynch, said Lynch was smoking crack cocaine at the time but it doesn’t excuse what he did.

Judge O’Donnell described it as “savagery” and noted that Lynch has a history of violence.

Lynch has been at the centre of numerous incidents while serving other sentences behind bars.

He had been a close associate of the Dundon brothers while in Limerick prison and in July 2010 Lynch, Ger Dundon and James Dillon — who is serving life for the murder of innocent businessman Roy Collins — barricaded themselves into the cell on the D3 landing of Limerick prison.

A Control and Restraint (C&R) tactical team in full riot gear was sent in to deal with the disturbance.