Five who tortured woman in Dublin flat jailed for between eight and 14 years

Irish Times

2 days ago

Five men who falsely imprisoned and tortured a woman during a three hour ordeal in a Dublin city centre flat have been jailed for terms ranging from eight and a half to 14 years.
'There has to be general deterrence to this type of torture,' Judge Pauline Codd said.
The men's 'evil' and 'vile' offences against the woman, including 'violent, sadistic and brutal' assaults occurred against a background of drug criminality, she said.
The woman, aged 38, was taken to a flat in Henrietta House, Dublin 7 over a false accusation about missing drugs, was beaten around the head and body with metal poles, 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.
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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.
She was terrified throughout and thought she was going to die, she said.
The assault ended only when gardaí entered the flat with a search warrant.
All of the men were on bail at the time and all had drug abuse issues, including two who were born addicted to drugs, the sentencing hearing was told.
In text messages, one boasted to a friend during the incident they had a 'hostage' and had 'cut her up', to which his unidentified friend replied: 'quality'.
Mobile phone video footage taken inside the flat that day was played, showing 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. She spent three weeks in hospital in the immediate aftermath of the assault.
Five of the eight men present that day entered guilty pleas. Another man and a juvenile are still before the courts and the eighth person is not before the courts.
Mark McMahon (55) and his son Mark Keogh (33), along with 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, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and assault causing harm to the woman 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.
Having heard mitigation submissions on behalf of the five men, Judge Codd imposed an effective 12 year sentence on McMahon and nine years on his son, Mark Keogh.
Conroy, whom the judge described as one of the main movers of what was happening in the flat, 'eclipsed only by the actions of Rice', was jailed for an effective 12 years.
Rice, whom the judge noted was identified by the victim as the 'main ringleader or instigator', with Conroy to a lesser degree, was jailed for 14 years. He had questioned the victims about missing drugs, threatened to rape her daughter, beat her, burnt her repeatedly on the legs a with heated hammer and also burned her face and legs.
The judge jailed Walshe for an effective eight and a half years.