Mum burned with blowtorch during three-hour torture by eight-man gang slams ‘animals'
'I was beaten, stabbed and burnt – tortured to confess to something I knew nothing about,' she said.
During a three hour period in September last year in which she was put through 'unimaginable trauma', the woman was beaten to the head and body with metal poles.
She was burned with a makeshift blow torch and a heated hammer head, cut with a knife, kicked and punched, had her hair cut off and was threatened with rape, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.
The men took running jumps at her during the assault in a one bedroom flat at Henrietta House, Dublin 7, threatened to make her drink ammonia and also threatened to rape her teenage daughter. She was terrified throughout and thought she was going to die, Caroline Cummings BL, prosecuting, told the sentence hearing today.
Left to right: Sean Conroy (21), Mark McMahon (55), Mark Keogh (33), Kian Walshe (22), Braxton Rice (20). All five admitted to falsely imprisoning and assaulting the woman at Henrietta House in Bolton Street, Dublin 7, on September 26, 2024.
News in 90 Seconds - July 25th
The assault only ended when gardaí entered the flat with a search warrant, the court heard. All of the men, who have between one and 124 previous convictions respectively, were on bail at the time of the offence.
In text messages read out in court, one of the men boasted to a friend during the incident that they had a 'hostage' and had 'cut her up', to which this unidentified man replied: 'quality'. Phone video footage taken inside the flat that day was also played in court, which showed the woman bloodied and distressed and a hammer being heated up on a hob. Read more
The woman was left with 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, the court heard. She spent three weeks in hospital in the immediate aftermath of the assault.
Five of the eight men present that day entered guilty pleas, while another man and a juvenile are still before the courts. The eighth person is not before the courts.
Sean Conroy, from Silloge Road, Ballymun, Dublin pictured at the Criminal Courts of Justice (CCJ) on Parkgate Street. Photo: IrishPhotoDesk.ie
Mark Keogh (33), Mark McMahon (55) and Braxton Rice (21), all of Henrietta House, Henrietta Place, Dublin 7, along with Sean Conroy (21) of Sillogue Road, Ballymun and Kian Walshe (22) of Constitution Hill, Dublin 7, all pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and assault causing harm to the woman at Henrietta House on September 26, 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.
In her victim impact statement, which was read out by the investigating officer, the 38-year-old woman said she was 'petrified' in the flat. 'If police didn't come in through that door that day, I was sure I was dead,' she said, describing the men as 'animals'.
'I was beaten, stabbed and burnt – tortured to confess to something I knew nothing about,' she said.
'...The smell of my skin burning, I will never get that smell out of my mind again,' she said, adding that she was 'completely helpless' and outnumbered by the eight men.
'I never knew humanity could be so cruel,' she said.
Detective Garda Peter Guyett told the court that at the time of the incident, the woman and her then partner were staying with one of the men whose case is still before the court. While there, the woman became aware this man was holding drugs in his house.
On the day in question, this man and another person approached the woman in the house and told her: 'Come on, we've to go', before she was put into an Audi containing two other men and driven to Henrietta House.
There were eight men in the flat and a 'baby-faced' man, who later emerged to be Rice, started interrogating her about a €90k batch of cocaine that had gone missing from the home she was staying in.
Rice accessed the woman's Facebook account and demanded her mother's address, threatening to rape her teenage daughter who was staying there. He started hitting her across the head with a metal pole before he 'lost control' and started hitting her all over her body, the court heard.
An older man, later identified as McMahon, whose flat it was, held a hatchet up to her face while his son Keogh, referred to in court as 'Sparky' hit her across the head with a pole. Conroy kicked her face. 'Every person there hit her,' Ms Cummings said. 'Not one of them didn't get involved'.
She said the men would walk into the next room so they had more space in order to run at the woman with speed while assaulting her. While she was being hit and kicked, Braxton heated the head of a hammer up and pressed it 'over and over' against her bare legs, the court heard.
They cut her hair which the woman later described as 'the ultimate humiliation'. At one point, she heard the men on the phone to their 'boss' who said: 'Strip her off and get her into bed and bugger her.' They didn't do this but they told her a 'black man' was coming to rape her, the court heard.
The man whose house she was staying in was told by the others to get involved and he cut her legs with some sort of blade. They used an aerosol can and a lighter as a makeshift blowtorch to burn her.
The woman thought the incident lasted for an hour and a half, but CCTV footage showed she was in the flat for three hours before gardaí entered, the court heard. The woman was visibly bloodied and bruised, extremely distressed and there was blood on the chair under her as well as clumps of hair scattered around the flat.
The men tried to pretend that she had been injured outside by a third party and they were helping to clean her up, but the woman was taken to another room where she disclosed that they had been torturing her.
'I was being beaten to a pulp by all these men for absolutely no reason,' she later told gardaí. 'They used steel poles, hammers, makeshift blowtorches and lighters to torture me.'
The woman was present in court for the sentence hearing and after lunch, Ms Cummings informed Judge Pauline Codd that it was suspected that someone in court had been recording her. A device had been seized, the court heard. Prosecution counsel said people had been staring at the woman and moving closer to her in court.
Judge Codd ordered that there be no recording in court, reminding those in the public gallery that this is in contempt of court.
In her victim impact statement, the woman said that the men had tortured her family information out of her and the threat of rape against her daughter had destroyed her. She said she now isolates herself from her family so they will never be in danger again.
She said the torture she endured was the longest three hours of her life and she continues to suffer from flashbacks, constant headaches, pain all over her body 'from all the hits I took that day'. She is still waiting on a psychological appointment, she said.
'What happened to me is something I will never forget,' she said. 'I will never forgive those sick human beings for what they have done to me.'
Concluding her statement, she said: 'To the people who did this to me: I hope you can sleep well at night, because I most certainly can't.'
Judge Codd thanked the woman for attending court. 'She has been through unimaginable trauma,' she said.
The court heard McMahon has 27 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession, burglary, robbery and malicious damage.
Keogh has 124 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession, possession of knives, assault causing harm and escaping custody.
Conroy has 89 previous convictions including drug dealing and possession, burglary and possession of knives.
Rice has 12 previous convictions including drug dealing and possession while Walshe has one previous conviction.
The maximum sentences for false imprisonment and assault causing harm are life and 10 years respectively.
Judge Codd adjourned the case to next Wednesday, when defence counsel will give their pleas of mitigation.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
Woman tortured over false drug accusation will never forgive ‘sick' men who attacked her
A woman who was tortured and falsely imprisoned in a Dublin flat over a false accusation about missing drugs has told a court she will never forgive the 'sick human beings' for what they did to her. During a three-hour period in September last year, in which she was put through 'unimaginable trauma', the woman was beaten around the head and body with metal poles. She was burned with a makeshift blow torch and a heated hammer head, cut with a knife, kicked and punched, had her hair cut off and was threatened with rape, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard. The men took running jumps at her during the assault in a one-bedroom flat at Henrietta House, Dublin 7 , threatened to make her drink ammonia and also threatened to rape her teenage daughter. She was terrified throughout and thought she was going to die, Caroline Cummings BL, prosecuting, told the sentence hearing on Friday. READ MORE The assault ended only when gardaí entered the flat with a search warrant, the court heard. All of the men, who have between one and 124 previous convictions, were on bail at the time of the offence. In text messages read out in court, one of the men boasted to a friend during the incident that they had a 'hostage' and had 'cut her up', to which this unidentified man replied: 'quality'. Phone video footage taken inside the flat that day was also played in court, which showed the woman bloodied and distressed and a hammer being heated up on a hob. The woman was left with 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, the court heard. She spent three weeks in hospital in the immediate aftermath of the assault. Five of the eight men present that day entered guilty pleas, while another man and a juvenile are still before the courts. The eighth person is not before the courts. Mark Keogh (33), Mark McMahon (55) and Braxton Rice (21), all of Henrietta House, Henrietta Place, Dublin 7, along with Sean Conroy (21) of Sillogue Road, Ballymun and Kian Walshe (22) of Constitution Hill, Dublin 7, all pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and assault causing harm to the woman at Henrietta House on September 26th, 2024. [ Man jailed for role in murder of David Douglas in Dublin shoe shop appeals conviction Opens in new window ] A number of other counts against each man relating to the production of articles in the course of an offence were taken into consideration. In her victim impact statement, which was read out by the investigating officer, the 38-year-old woman said she was 'petrified' in the flat. 'If police didn't come in through that door that day, I was sure I was dead,' she said, describing the men as 'animals'. 'I was beaten, stabbed and burnt – tortured to confess to something I knew nothing about,' she said. 'The smell of my skin burning, I will never get that smell out of my mind again,' she said, adding that she was 'completely helpless' and outnumbered by the eight men. 'I never knew humanity could be so cruel,' she said. Det Garda Peter Guyett told the court that at the time of the incident, the woman and her then partner were staying with one of the men whose case is still before the court. While there, the woman became aware this man was holding drugs in his house. [ Kinahan crime boss ordered to pay back £1 million or face more jail time Opens in new window ] On the day in question, this man and another person approached the woman in the house and told her: 'Come on, we've to go,' before she was put into an Audi containing two other men and driven to Henrietta House. There were eight men in the flat, and a 'baby-faced' man – who later emerged to be Rice – started interrogating her about a €90,000 batch of cocaine that had gone missing from the home she was staying in. An older man, later identified as McMahon, whose flat it was, held a hatchet up to her face while his son Keogh, referred to in court as 'Sparky', hit her across the head with a pole. Conroy kicked her face. 'Every person there hit her,' Ms Cummings said. 'Not one of them didn't get involved.' They cut her hair, which the woman later described as 'the ultimate humiliation'. The man whose house she was staying in was told by the others to get involved, and he cut her legs with some sort of blade. They used an aerosol can and a lighter as a makeshift blowtorch to burn her. The woman thought the incident lasted for an hour-and-a-half, but CCTV footage showed she was in the flat for three hours before gardaí entered, the court heard. The woman was present in court for the sentence hearing; in the afternoon, Ms Cummings informed Judge Pauline Codd that it was suspected that someone in court had been recording her. A device had been seized, the court heard. Judge Codd thanked the woman for attending court. 'She has been through unimaginable trauma,' she said. The court heard McMahon has 27 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession, burglary, robbery and malicious damage. Keogh has 124 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession, possession of knives, assault causing harm and escaping custody. Conroy has 89 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession, burglary and possession of knives. Rice has 12 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession. Walshe has one previous conviction. The maximum sentences for false imprisonment and assault causing harm are life and 10 years respectively. Judge Codd adjourned the case to next Wednesday, when defence counsel will give their pleas of mitigation.
Sunday World
2 days ago
- Sunday World
Mum burned with blowtorch during three-hour torture by eight-man gang slams ‘animals'
'so cruel' | 'I was beaten, stabbed and burnt – tortured to confess to something I knew nothing about,' she said. During a three hour period in September last year in which she was put through 'unimaginable trauma', the woman was beaten to the head and body with metal poles. She was burned with a makeshift blow torch and a heated hammer head, cut with a knife, kicked and punched, had her hair cut off and was threatened with rape, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard. The men took running jumps at her during the assault in a one bedroom flat at Henrietta House, Dublin 7, threatened to make her drink ammonia and also threatened to rape her teenage daughter. She was terrified throughout and thought she was going to die, Caroline Cummings BL, prosecuting, told the sentence hearing today. Left to right: Sean Conroy (21), Mark McMahon (55), Mark Keogh (33), Kian Walshe (22), Braxton Rice (20). All five admitted to falsely imprisoning and assaulting the woman at Henrietta House in Bolton Street, Dublin 7, on September 26, 2024. News in 90 Seconds - July 25th The assault only ended when gardaí entered the flat with a search warrant, the court heard. All of the men, who have between one and 124 previous convictions respectively, were on bail at the time of the offence. In text messages read out in court, one of the men boasted to a friend during the incident that they had a 'hostage' and had 'cut her up', to which this unidentified man replied: 'quality'. Phone video footage taken inside the flat that day was also played in court, which showed the woman bloodied and distressed and a hammer being heated up on a hob. Read more The woman was left with 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, the court heard. She spent three weeks in hospital in the immediate aftermath of the assault. Five of the eight men present that day entered guilty pleas, while another man and a juvenile are still before the courts. The eighth person is not before the courts. Sean Conroy, from Silloge Road, Ballymun, Dublin pictured at the Criminal Courts of Justice (CCJ) on Parkgate Street. Photo: Mark Keogh (33), Mark McMahon (55) and Braxton Rice (21), all of Henrietta House, Henrietta Place, Dublin 7, along with Sean Conroy (21) of Sillogue Road, Ballymun and Kian Walshe (22) of Constitution Hill, Dublin 7, all pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and assault causing harm to the woman at Henrietta House on September 26, 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. In her victim impact statement, which was read out by the investigating officer, the 38-year-old woman said she was 'petrified' in the flat. 'If police didn't come in through that door that day, I was sure I was dead,' she said, describing the men as 'animals'. 'I was beaten, stabbed and burnt – tortured to confess to something I knew nothing about,' she said. '...The smell of my skin burning, I will never get that smell out of my mind again,' she said, adding that she was 'completely helpless' and outnumbered by the eight men. 'I never knew humanity could be so cruel,' she said. Detective Garda Peter Guyett told the court that at the time of the incident, the woman and her then partner were staying with one of the men whose case is still before the court. While there, the woman became aware this man was holding drugs in his house. On the day in question, this man and another person approached the woman in the house and told her: 'Come on, we've to go', before she was put into an Audi containing two other men and driven to Henrietta House. There were eight men in the flat and a 'baby-faced' man, who later emerged to be Rice, started interrogating her about a €90k batch of cocaine that had gone missing from the home she was staying in. Rice accessed the woman's Facebook account and demanded her mother's address, threatening to rape her teenage daughter who was staying there. He started hitting her across the head with a metal pole before he 'lost control' and started hitting her all over her body, the court heard. An older man, later identified as McMahon, whose flat it was, held a hatchet up to her face while his son Keogh, referred to in court as 'Sparky' hit her across the head with a pole. Conroy kicked her face. 'Every person there hit her,' Ms Cummings said. 'Not one of them didn't get involved'. She said the men would walk into the next room so they had more space in order to run at the woman with speed while assaulting her. While she was being hit and kicked, Braxton heated the head of a hammer up and pressed it 'over and over' against her bare legs, the court heard. They cut her hair which the woman later described as 'the ultimate humiliation'. At one point, she heard the men on the phone to their 'boss' who said: 'Strip her off and get her into bed and bugger her.' They didn't do this but they told her a 'black man' was coming to rape her, the court heard. The man whose house she was staying in was told by the others to get involved and he cut her legs with some sort of blade. They used an aerosol can and a lighter as a makeshift blowtorch to burn her. The woman thought the incident lasted for an hour and a half, but CCTV footage showed she was in the flat for three hours before gardaí entered, the court heard. The woman was visibly bloodied and bruised, extremely distressed and there was blood on the chair under her as well as clumps of hair scattered around the flat. The men tried to pretend that she had been injured outside by a third party and they were helping to clean her up, but the woman was taken to another room where she disclosed that they had been torturing her. 'I was being beaten to a pulp by all these men for absolutely no reason,' she later told gardaí. 'They used steel poles, hammers, makeshift blowtorches and lighters to torture me.' The woman was present in court for the sentence hearing and after lunch, Ms Cummings informed Judge Pauline Codd that it was suspected that someone in court had been recording her. A device had been seized, the court heard. Prosecution counsel said people had been staring at the woman and moving closer to her in court. Judge Codd ordered that there be no recording in court, reminding those in the public gallery that this is in contempt of court. In her victim impact statement, the woman said that the men had tortured her family information out of her and the threat of rape against her daughter had destroyed her. She said she now isolates herself from her family so they will never be in danger again. She said the torture she endured was the longest three hours of her life and she continues to suffer from flashbacks, constant headaches, pain all over her body 'from all the hits I took that day'. She is still waiting on a psychological appointment, she said. 'What happened to me is something I will never forget,' she said. 'I will never forgive those sick human beings for what they have done to me.' Concluding her statement, she said: 'To the people who did this to me: I hope you can sleep well at night, because I most certainly can't.' Judge Codd thanked the woman for attending court. 'She has been through unimaginable trauma,' she said. The court heard McMahon has 27 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession, burglary, robbery and malicious damage. Keogh has 124 previous convictions, including drug dealing and possession, possession of knives, assault causing harm and escaping custody. Conroy has 89 previous convictions including drug dealing and possession, burglary and possession of knives. Rice has 12 previous convictions including drug dealing and possession while Walshe has one previous conviction. The maximum sentences for false imprisonment and assault causing harm are life and 10 years respectively. Judge Codd adjourned the case to next Wednesday, when defence counsel will give their pleas of mitigation.
Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Garda convicted of assaulting teenage boy in Temple Bar four years ago
A garda has been convicted of assaulting a teenager in Temple Bar four years ago following a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Lorcan Murphy, 32, of Pearse Street Garda Station, pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault causing harm under section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997. The assaults on the then 17-year-old took place on Essex Street, Dublin 2, and Pearse Street Garda Station on June 1, 2021. After four hours and 20 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned unanimous verdicts of guilty on both counts. There was complete silence in the court after the jury delivered its verdict. Judge Pauline Codd thanked the jurors for their service. She adjourned the matter for sentencing until November 3 next, in order to prepare a probation report and a victim impact statement. She remanded Murphy on continuing bail. The trial heard the complainant had been 'drinking that day' and had also been 'smoking weed'. He also said that he 'could have been' carrying alcohol. He went to meet his girlfriend in Temple Bar and said the last thing he remembered was walking past McDonald's on Grafton Street. He said 'waking up in James' Hospital' was the next thing he remembered. Someone in the hospital told him he was involved in an incident with the gardaí. He said he ran out of the hospital as he 'freaked out', and thought nothing was wrong with him. He woke up with a pain in his head, then went to the Mater Hospital before being transferred to Beaumont Hospital, where he stayed for five days. He said he had headaches but has no issues with his memory. The complainant agreed during cross-examination he had no recollection of the incident, due to a head injury, but accepted alcohol and cannabis could have contributed to his lack of memory. In his evidence, Mr Murphy said he went to assist a colleague, who was dealing with the complainant. He instructed the complainant to remove his hands from his pockets, then noted the young man tense up. Mr Murphy said the complainant produced a glass bottle in such a way that he believed he was at risk of being struck with the bottle. Mr Murphy said he managed to take hold of the complainant's second hand, and he was handcuffed. He said the complainant was spitting towards him. Mr Murphy said he felt unsafe both for himself and the arrested complainant. He said he had his hand on the complainant's back and felt him shift his weight, and Mr Murphy then performed a leg sweep. The side of the complainant's body and head made contact with the ground. Mr Murphy checked him visually and said at no stage was he unconscious. He requested prisoner transport and that a doctor be called to Pearse Street Garda Station. In his closing speech, prosecuting counsel John Gallagher BL told the jury the prosecution's case was that excessive force was used in the leg sweep, which resulted in the complainant's head impacting the ground. He submitted the level of force used to bring the complainant to the ground after his initial arrest was not reasonable, inherently dangerous and likely to cause injury to the complainant. Mr Justin McQuade, BL, defending, said the force used was a leg sweep, and it was an 'unfortunate secondary impact' when the complainant hit his head on the ground, adding his client 'did not have the luxury of picking a softer landing point'. Mr McQuade suggested if gardaí were going to be criminalised for using force, they may be slower to use it in the future and that benefits no one.
