Assault victim: Son stole funds raised by public

Stephen 'not seen cent of €120,000 in donations | Mike denies the claim & says cash 'wasn't his dad's

- PAUL HEALY , MICHAEL O'TOOLE

ASSAULT victim Stephen Termini’s son has denied his father’s claims that he stole funds raised for him by the public. 

The US tourist, who has recovered from a brutal attack in Dublin in July, said he hasn’t seen a cent of the €120,000 raised by Mike Rizzuto on the website GoFundMe.

Mr Termini, who is back in his hometown of Buffalo, New York, said: “That GoFundMe my son set up, he stole all that money. He didn’t give me any of that money.

“My heart is broken. He won’t answer my calls, won’t call me back.

“I’m planning to file a complaint of fraud with GoFundMe.

“I’m going to get GoFundMe to give all those people their money back and then I’m going to hopefully set up one for myself. I can’t believe he did that.

“In my heart I was so thankful for what the people did and I was going to use that to buy a house and just be where I wanted to be – in Ireland.

“When I found out what happened I was devastated.

“Even after all that I ’ve gone through, I thought that I had a way, a reward for dealing with that, and just wanted to buy not a mansion or anything but a little cosy little place.

“When I found out it was, ‘No, you’re not getting that,’ I was like, ‘Wow’.

“He hasn’t called me once to see how I’m doing, you know. I cannot believe my son did that s**t to me.

“So because of that now I’ve got to go back to work. I had time I was taking to get my strength and all that back.

“I’ve got to go back to work next week just to make money to buy food and the basics. It’s pretty bad.