Moment snarling criminal smears window of a Sunday World vehicle with faeces

The filthy Fixer attacked our vehicle on Thursday morning after he spotted our photographer taking pictures at the funeral of pal and notorious fraudster Fran ‘The Lamb’ Cunningham.

Fitzgerald (78) and an associate parked up behind our team’s vehicle minutes before the funeral was due to commence at 11.30am.

Fixer’s associate, after peering in the rear window of the vehicle, informed him he could see our photographer inside the vehicle with his camera.

“He’s in there with a camera,” he told him.

Fixer, who was standing outside the pair’s car, then opened the rear door of his vehicle and reached inside where he grabbed a pile of excrement with some sheets of paper.

With a snarl on his aged face, the disgusting OAP then slammed it into the rear window of our vehicle before smearing it all over the glass.

Sickened at Fixer’s disrespectful antics and conscious that the funeral of well-liked Cunningham was about to get underway, our team decided to withdraw and deny him the satisfaction of the public confrontation he was obviously seeking.

As we pulled away, our photographer captured the sight of a now breathless Fixer holding the poo-stained papers in his left hand.

“It was a disgusting thing to do,” our photographer said later.

“Honestly, I just can’t figure out why anyone would drive around with a pile of crap in the back of their car. There’s something very wrong with a person who behaves like that!”

Approached by this newspaper yesterday, an unapologetic Fixer engaged in a tirade of abuse when our reporter attempted to ask him if he wished to apologise for what he’d done.

“Get the f**k out of here,” he raged. ”Get the f**k out of here you!”

When he was asked whether he thought he was funny when he smeared excrement on a photographer’s car, the pensioner responded: “I thought it was f**king great.”

“You sleeveen sly c**t’s.

“I couldn’t give a f**k.

“Get the f**k out of here.”

Fixer’s dislike of the Sunday World dates back to our repeated exposés of his relationships with some of the country’s most notorious gangsters.

In 2014, we revealed how he was acting as a debt collector for pint-size criminal John Gilligan following the detested drug dealer’s release from prison.

Fixer phoned cigarette smuggler Noel ‘Kingsize’ Duggan on behalf of Gilligan, trying to get cash from him.

But Duggan told this newspaper at the time: ““Nobody puts the squeeze on me. I don’t give a ‘f***’ who anybody is.”

‘Fixer’ of Dunmore Park, Tallaght, was also friendly with slain gang boss Martin ‘The General’ Cahill and deceased criminal John Traynor.

Fixer was himself jailed for five years in July 2003, for handling a stolen sports car and setting parts of it on fire.

After a high-profile trial featuring allegations of an attempt to nobble the jury, Fixer was sentenced to four years for handling the stolen car, to run concurrently with a five year sentence for setting fire to it.

Moments after carrying out the sickening attack on our vehicle on Thursday, the filthy fingered Fixer joined fellow mourners in the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Ballyfermot where Fran ‘The Lamb’ Cunningham’s funeral was taking place.

Cunningham passed away earlier this month after what is understood to have been a fall from the second floor of his Ballyfermot home.

Originally from Le Fanu Road in Ballyfermot, he was a brother of Michael and John Cunningham, who gained notoriety for the kidnapping of Jennifer Guinness in 1986.

John Cunningham went on to become a key player in the Kinahan cartel, while Michael died of natural causes nine years ago.

Fran’s list of associates read like a who’s who of Irish gangsters of yesteryear, including John Traynor, John Gilligan, Martin ‘the Viper’ Foley, Martin ‘the General’ Cahill and Noel ‘Kingsize’ Duggan.

He ran a front operation of a bad debts agency and lived in an exclusive apartment in Ranelagh for a time — but his real income came from criminality.

In the late 1990s he was behind a bid to cash IR£1.5m worth of stolen bank drafts which were stolen in a London raid.

He flew to Amsterdam with a man he had recruited to cash the drafts but kept his distance while the man went to the bank.

Gardaí, Dutch police and Interpol were aware of the operation and Dutch cops arrested the other man, but Cunningham was able to fly back to Dublin without a problem.

In 1999 his luck ran out when he was sent down for five years for masterminding a £45,000 fraud.

He tried to avoid prison by faking a heart attack while he was supposed to be in court. He was taken to hospital and tried to escape but was caught by gardaí.

When they stopped him he was in the company of Martin ‘the Viper’ Foley.

Being behind bars didn’t stop Cunningham from committing crime and in 2002 he was behind the forgery of fake driving licenses in Mountjoy Prison which were smuggled out and sold for €200 each.

He also became the prison’s unofficial bookie, operating gambling rackets via a mobile phone.

He was nabbed for several other offences over the years including in 2012 when he was found guilty of involvement in a €315,000 cigarette delivery van heist.

Despite Cunningham’s criminal activities, he was well liked and respected by those whom he associated with.

Paying tribute to their father at Thursday’s funeral mass, his children described him as a man ‘so charismatic, he lit up every room he walked into’.

In a joint eulogy, they said: “The one thing that Dad had carefully planned and let us all know was the first line of his eulogy.

“He would say: ‘Fran was a good man, Fran was a kind man.’

“And he was!

“There are many words I would use to describe our dad this week but his favourite however was dad.

“And he was an amazing dad.

“He did everything for us and we could ring him at any time.

“He was the first person we would call if we had a problem because we knew he would always be there to help us no matter what.

“And if he didn’t have what we needed to help, he always knew someone that he could call and that person would answer the phone any hour of the day or night.

“And we thank those people who answered those calls.”

Fran ‘the Lamb’ Cunningham was laid to rest following his funeral mass at Palmerstown Cemetery in Dublin.