Dublin mob kill suspect dealer

An angry mob of inner-city Dublin residents battered to death an Aids sufferer suspected of drug dealing late on Tuesday in the latest in a series of drug-related assaults and killings this year.

The victim, Joseph Dwyer, 41, was attacked with another man close to the Guinness brewery in James Street. At least 15 men armed with baseball bats took part in the assault. Mr Dwyer, who had served a four-year jail term for drugs offences, died an hour after arriving at the nearby St James Hospital.

His family say he weighed only six stone and would not have been able to run away. Mr Dwyer was a widower whose wife had died of Aids. He had 87p in his pockets when he died.

His brother, James, said the pair had been followed and assaulted three times over a distance of a mile by the same crowd. He said Mr Dwyer had been left alone in the first two incidents, when the crowd attacked the younger man.

He said the crowd "were in a frenzy, trying to clear the [Dolphin's] Barn" area of drug-takers. "They hit three or four fellows at the Barn. They hit a young fellow of 16 and nearly broke his legs and arms for taking drugs," Mr Dwyer said.

He said the younger man was "battered" outside the Dolphin's Barn ice rink and again at nearby Fatima Mansions. "Then they followed them down to Basin Lane, where they had weapons." The other victim, in his mid- twenties, suffered less serious injuries than Mr Dwyer, and was said to be comfortable in hospital.

Neighbours said that Mr Dwyer's door had been broken down several times by anti-drugs campaigners.

Dealing is now carried on with remarkable openness in the inner city. The trade, and a consequent wave of petty crime ranging from thefts from cars, hand-bag snatches to tourist muggings, has prompted vigilante activity in the last two years. Four other Dublin men drug dealers have been shot dead recently.