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12th Jan 2019

Irish couple robbed at gunpoint while on holiday in Portugal

Alan Loughnane

irish couple portugal

“They were going to shoot me and sell my fiancée for money as a sex slave.”

An Irish couple have described how they were forced into a car at gunpoint and robbed while on holiday in Portugal recently.

Dermot called into Joe Duffy on Liveline from Faro Airport, Portugal and explained to Joe that he and his fiancée were on their way home from a holiday from hell.

They were on holiday and walking up the strip in Albufeira when they were forced into a car at gunpoint.

“We saw them at a bakery. They came out of it while we were passing. They pulled a gun on me and my partner” Dermot said.

“They forced us into the car and took us up a back road an hour away from the strip. They were going to shoot me and sell my fiancée for money as a sex slave.”

The gang took around €300 in cash from them and then forced the pair to an ATM.

They sent his fiancée to withdraw money, but she only had a card with insufficient funds and was unable to make a withdrawal. The gang sent Dermot to assist her and the pair managed to flee the scene and make a statement to the police.

They were able to identify them to the Portuguese police and his fiancée somhow was able to take a photo of the car while it was all happening.

Speaking to RTÉ, the Portuguese police said they are taking the incident very seriously and that they have two teams working on the investigation.

The nightmare wasn’t over for the couple, who were victims of theft again. After leaving their hotel room for a short time on the last day of their trip, they returned to find a mobile phone was missing, along with three bank cards.

Dermot expressed his frustration with their travel insurance company AIG which he feels failed to help him and his fiancée during their ordeal.

AIG issued the following statement to Liveline in response to Dermot’s complaint:

AIG sympathises with the situation this couple found themselves in and has been in touch to offer its support. Travel insurance policies only cover certain specified scenarios and if a specific scenario is not covered the policy will not apply.