The Fine Gael MEP for Connacht-Ulster, Mr Joe McCartin, was yesterday recovering in Brussels from a mugging on Monday in a park beside the European Parliament, writes Patrick Smyth.
Mr McCartin, who later received 10 stitches to a head wound, was set upon by five or six youths as he walked through the small Parc Leopold at about 7 p.m. They hit him about the head and knocked him to the ground. When he shouted for help, the youths fled with his briefcase.
The former MEP, Mr Pat Cooney, was also mugged in the same park about five years ago.