Daughter's appeal after park attack dad in coma

THE daughter of a man who is fighting for his life following a vicious attack in a city park has urged witnesses to come forward - saying "somebody saw something".

- BY DANNY DE VAAL

Robert “Speedy” Larkin was beaten to a pulp in Dublin's Fairview Park at around 6pm last Wednesday and remains in intensive care in Beaumont Hospital.

He suffered extensive head injuries resulting in multiple brain bleeds and facial fractures.

His injuries were so bad that his daughter Leah Murray didn’t recognise him when the doctors brought her to his bedside.

Leah said her dad's recovery is further complicated because he also has an arteriovenous malformation, which is a tangle of blood vessels that creates irregular connections between arteries and veins in the brain.

When he was diagnosed with this 10 years ago, medics told him any sort of trauma to the head could be fatal.

Leah told this paper: “He was attacked in Fairview Park, we don’t know by who, we don't know how many people did it.