‘Dublin torture gang burnt me and beat me, then stopped to order chips'

Sunday World

4 days ago

Natalie Ennis tells of callous gang's abuse
Natalie Ennis was taken by a gang of men to a flat in Henrietta House in Dublin 7 in September last year after she was falsely blamed for missing drugs.
Five gang members were jailed last week for between eight and 14 years for the depraved attack on the 38-year-old mother of one.
In an interview in the Sunday Independent, she said during her harrowing ordeal her attackers were 'all ordering chippers for themselves' and going to the shops for bottles of coke and Lucozade.
'It's something I live with every day. You are talking to me now and I can still see it happen to me,' she said.
From above, Braxton Rice, Mark McMahon, Mark Keogh, Sean Conroy and Kian Walshe – five of the eight men involved in the horrific assault
Mark McMahon
Mark Keogh
Sean Conroy
Kian Walshe
The attack occurred on Thursday, September 26, when the man she was renting a room in an apartment came in and said: 'Right, let's go. He had a gash on his face and that's when I knew there was something wrong,' she said.
She was driven to Henrietta House in the north inner city, and to a squalid flat. She was whacked across the head with metal bars, a hammer was heated up and pressed against her bare skin. She was repeatedly kicked her in the face and had a hatchet held to her head.
One of her attackers looked up her personal details on Facebook, looked up her family, and threatened to rape her daughter, who was just 17.
Ms Ennis, who had been pummelled, slashed and burnt, found the courage to speak out: 'I said youse won't be doing nothing to my daughter. You'll do it to me,' she said.
'Jesus. That got me big time.'
Ms Ennis believed she was going to die. 'In my head, I was going to ask them could I just ring and say goodbye to my Ma and my daughter,' she said.
Out of nowhere, armed gardaí rammed open the door and swarmed the flat. By coincidence, they were coincidentally executing a warrant relating to a completely different matter.
Ms Ennis spent weeks in hospital with severe injuries including burns, severe bruising, fractures to her cheekbone and eye socket, a broken nasal bone, broken elbow. She had to have spinal surgery to have a disc removed.
She was 'terrified' when she was discharged because she had nowhere to go, and has been living for the last 10 months in a crisis accommodation centre for woman escaping domestic violence run by Sonas.
Apart from ongoing pain and medical issues, she said she is constantly terrified and suffers night terrors.
Natalie Ennis stood up to the torturers' threats against her daughter
'I barely go outside the door. When I do it's in a taxi. I'm afraid of every fella that walks by me,' she said.
'I don't feel safe once I leave this building. This is my safe place.'
Having waited 10 months for a psychiatric appointment, she was finally given one on Friday, the day after she was interviewed on RTE's Prime Time.
Braxton Rice (21), was sentenced to 14 years in jail. Mark McMahon (55) was jailed for 12 years. His son, 33-year-old Mark Keogh, was jailed for nine. Sean Conroy (21), from Ballymun, was jailed for 12 years. Kian Walshe (22) from Dublin 7 was jailed for eight-and-a-half years.
The men apologised to Ms Ennis, and one wrote to her. 'That means nothing to me. Evil demon devil,' she said.
News in 90 Seconds - Sunday, August 3rd