Wednesday 18 September 2019 12:23 pm

Chief executive kidnapped and beaten in Northern Ireland

LONDONDERRY, NORTHERN IRELAND – JANUARY 19: PSNI officers stand watch over the remains of the car that was earlier hijacked and packed with explosives before being detonated outside Derry court house on January 19, 2019 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Dissident republicans are suspected to be behind the attack. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

The chief executive of a Northern Irish construction supplies group at the centre of an inquiry by the Irish Central Bank was kidnapped from his home last night and later dumped, badly beaten, on the side of the road.

Kevin Lunney, who leads Quinn Industrial Holdings, is in hospital with a broken leg and other severe injuries.

It follows what the chair of his company called a series of “increasingly serious criminal attacks” against Quinn management.

In 2016, the Irish Times reported, Lunney and other executives were sent death threats, and a sign close to its office on the border with Ireland read: “Remove the UDA + UVF off our mountain, or face the gun.”

The UDA (Ulster Defence Association) and UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) are loyalist paramilitary groups.

Lunney, 50, was taken from his home in Derrylin, Northern Ireland, at 6.40pm yesterday evening, before being discovered south of the border at 9pm.

Both his car and a second vehicle were found on fire close to his home just after the kidnapping, the Belfast Telegraph reported.

“We have previously warned of the inevitability of serious injury and loss of life arising from these sustained and increasingly serious criminal attacks. We find it inexplicable that not a single arrest has been made north or south despite dozens of incidents,” said Quinn chair Adrian Barden.

The attacks started after billionaire Sean Quinn declared bankruptcy in 2011 after investing in Anglo Irish Bank, which collapsed.

Quinn Industrial was one of the companies formed as his empire was sold off. The company has said the attacks are by “persons who had sought the return of Sean Quinn”.

DUP leader Arlene Foster called the news “totally abhorrent”, while local Sinn Fein MP Michelle Gildnernew said the attack had “caused widespread disgust within the wider community,” according to the Belfast Telegraph.