A woman who was falsely imprisoned and tortured during a three-hour ordeal in a Dublin flat said she feels “numb” but has welcomed the jailing of five men for terms ranging from 8½ to 14 years.
Natalie Ennis (38) was taken to a flat in Henrietta House, central Dublin, over a false accusation about missing drugs, was beaten around the head and body with metal poles, burned with a makeshift blowtorch and a heated hammer head, cut with a knife, kicked and punched, had her hair cut off and was threatened with rape.
The men took running jumps at her during the assault last September, threatened to make her drink ammonia and threatened to rape her teenage daughter.
They were jailed on Wednesday.
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After the sentencing hearing, Ms Ennis, accompanied by her mother, stood outside the court building as David Hall, of the Sonas domestic violence charity, read a statement on her behalf.
After the statement was read, Ms Ennis, asked how she felt, replied: “Numb” and became upset.
In the statement, Mr Hall said Ms Ennis was “lured, trapped and subject to a level of violence and cruelty that defies belief”.
“This was not an assault, it was torture, deliberate, sustained and devastating.” Ms Ennis’s life had been “changed forever”.
Ms Ennis, the statement said, thanked gardaí for their “incredible support” and Judge Pauline Codd “for her compassion towards me and her understanding of the horror I was subjected to and for imposing sentences that recognised the gravity of the crimes inflicted upon me”.
Mr Hall said Ms Ennis “is a survivor but survival comes at a heavy price” and she continues to fight for “basic core supports” to rebuild her life, including finding “somewhere safe to live”.
“There has to be general deterrence to this type of torture,” Judge Codd said when imposing the sentences at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday.
The “brutal, violent and sadistic” offending shows the ”evil associated with drug dealing and extensive criminality which underpins the drug trade”, the judge said.
The offences by a group of men against one woman were “acts of cowardice” involving “truly barbaric” levels of violence and “profane threats” and caused harm “of the most serious type”, physically and mentally, to Ms Ennis.
The assaults included being beaten on the head and body with poles, punched, burned on the skin with a heated hammer and a makeshift blowtorch, cut with knives and the “almost ritualistic, medieval” punishment of the cutting off of Ms Ennis’ hair.
In text messages, one man boasted they had a “hostage” and had “cut her up”. Phone video footage taken inside the flat also showed Ms Ennis bloodied and distressed and a hammer being heated up on a hob.
A concerning feature was that two of the five defendants, Braxton Rice and Sean Conroy, were, by the age of 20, “capable of using such cruelty and depravity”.
It was significant the offences were suspended only when gardaí came into the flat, the judge said, adding she “greatly commended” gardaí for their investigation and sensitivity towards Ms Ennis.
Gardaí had arrived by coincidence at the flat, owned by Mark McMahon, to execute a warrant.
McMahon was among five of the eight men present in the flat at Henrietta House, Dublin, during the incident who entered guilty pleas. Another man and a juvenile are still before the courts and the eighth person is not before the courts.
McMahon (55), his son Mark Keogh (33), and Braxton Rice (21), all of Henrietta House, Henrietta Place, Dublin, along with Sean Conroy (21) of Sillogue Road, Ballymun and Kian Walshe (22) of Constitution Hill, Dublin, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and assault causing harm to Ms Ennis at Henrietta House on September 26th, 2024.
A number of other counts against each man relating to the production of articles in the course of an offence were taken into consideration.
Judge Codd, having last week heard details of the offences and a victim impact statement from Ms Ennis. In that, Ms Ennis described the terror she felt during the assaults and said she believed, if the gardaí had not arrived, she was sure she was dead.
“Animals wouldn’t have done what they did,” she said.
The judge heard mitigation submissions on behalf of the five on Wednesday.
All five had involvement in drugs, four from a young age including two, Rice and Conroy, who were born with addiction issues, she was told.
All five were on bail at the time of the incident and have previous convictions, ranging from one conviction in the case of Walshe to 124 for Keogh. All apologised to Ms Ennis and expressed remorse, their counsel said.
In her ruling, the judge noted Ms Ennis spent three weeks in hospital after the assaults. She suffered a broken eye socket, broken cheekbone, broken nasal bone, broken elbow, burns, dislocated teeth, bruising and lacerations across her head and scalp, among other injuries. She required skin grafts, staples to her scalp, and later had surgery to remove a disc in her back.
It was clear the offences have had a serious and lasting impact physically and psychologically, on Ms Ennis, she said.
Her trauma did not end with the physical injuries, her ability to live her daily life normally is affected, she is frightened when she sees young men, is “always looking over her shoulder” and felt her confidence and self-worth was stripped away.
“The terror will never leave her.”
The judge said she had considered Ms Ennis’ victim impact statement and the “unimaginable traumatic impact” on her which will last for years to come.
Ms Ennis had “shown remarkable courage and dignity” coming to court.
Having balanced aggravating factors, including the nature of the assaults with mitigatory factors, particularly the men’s guilty pleas and expressions of remorse, the judge proceeded to impose sentence.
She jailed Rice, described as “the ringleader”, for a total 14 years. Ms Ennis had said he had questioned her about the allegedly missing cocaine, hit her with a pole across her head and body, told her he would rape her 17-year-old daughter, burnt her repeatedly with a heated hammer on the legs and also burnt her face and body with a makeshift blow torch.
She jailed Conroy for an effective 12 years, describing him as one of the “main movers” in what happened in flat.
A 12-year term was imposed on McMahon for reasons including it was his flat and he had held a hatchet up to the face of Ms Ennis. His history of drug misuse dated back to when he was aged 12 and his drug use on the day may explain his conduct but does not excuse it, the judge said. He had said he believed a “mob mentality” had taken over and was ashamed to be associated with violence against a woman.
The judge jailed Keogh for nine years. The only one to make admissions, he said he was in the flat for the last 30-60 minutes before gardaí arrived, was part of the group who assaulted Ms Ennis but remembered very little.
Walshe, whom the judge noted is from a stable family background, was jailed for an effective eight and a half years. His main role was to drive Ms Ennis to the flat which placed his offending in the upper range, the judge said. He was on bail at the time for an offence which was later dismissed.
