Four men accused of waterboarding, threatening rape and branding a victim with ‘RAT’ on his face have pleaded guilty to lesser assault charges after the victim refused to testify at trial.
Pictured, left to right, Jason Hennessy Jr; Brandon Hennessy; Dean Fitzsimons and Kenneth Fitzsimons.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has accepted pleas to a lesser charge from four men who were accused of falsely imprisoning a man who was waterboarded, threatened with rape and repeatedly branded with the word ‘RAT’ on his face, after the victim refused to testify at trial.
The State has accepted pleas of guilty to assault causing harm against each defendant, an offence that carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. Jason Hennessy Jr (28) and Brandon Hennessy (22), as well as Kenneth Fitzsimons (45) and his son Dean Fitzsimons (25), had been charged with various offences, including causing serious harm and false imprisonment of Barry Moore (34), both of which carry potential life sentences.
Garnet Orange SC, for the DPP, said the State accepts the pleas “on a full facts basis”.
Ms Justice Karen O’Connor adjourned the matter for a sentencing hearing on January 26 next year. She invited the victim, Barry Moore, to make a statement on that date. Michael Lynn SC, for Mr Moore, told the court that his client does not intend to make a statement.
Mr Moore was arrested on foot of a bench warrant last Thursday after he failed to show up for the trial. When brought to court, he repeatedly refused to enter the witness box to give evidence and told the three judges of the non-jury court: “I’m sorry to the three of you, but I am not giving any evidence in the trial ever. I’m finished with it. I apologise to the three of you.”
When the court warned Mr Moore that he could face a prison sentence for refusing to cooperate in a criminal trial, he maintained his position that he would not be giving evidence.
The DPP asked the court to rule that statements Mr Moore made to gardai after the assault should be admitted as evidence into the trial, without the injured party taking the stand. Lawyers for the defendants were expected to argue that Mr Moore’s statements should be ruled inadmissible because he was not making himself available for cross-examination.
Mr Orange said the State intended to call supporting evidence such as photographs of Mr Moore’s injuries and medical evidence. He said the State would also rely on CCTV footage as well as evidence of blood stains at the location of the assault and other materials consistent with Mr Moore’s account, including a “cattle brand’.
Counsel said the court would also be asked to draw inferences from the defendants’ alleged failure to answer certain questions during garda interviews. Following today’s pleas, Mr Orange said the State sees no reason to keep Mr Moore in custody and he will be released.
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In his opening speech last week, Mr Orange said the State alleges that the four defendants assaulted Mr Moore in a shed at the back of Jason Hennessy Jr’s home on Sheephill Avenue in Blanchardstown. During the assault, counsel said the group accused Mr Moore of giving information to people with whom the defendants were “not friendly”. He said they used a ‘branding’ object with the word ‘RAT’ on it, which they heated on a gas stove before using it to brand Mr Moore’s face and body.
Det Gda Stuart Gleeson told the trial that he interviewed Mr Moore the day after the alleged assault. He noted various injuries on Mr Moore’s body, including the ‘RAT’ branding on both sides of his face, forehead, stomach and back.
Det Gda Gleeson read out Mr Moore’s statement in which he detailed the assault.
He said he called to Jason Hennessy Jr’s home in Sheephill Avenue on February 12 this year to buy a tracksuit. He arrived at about 6.15pm and was brought into a shed at the back of the property where he met Devon and Jason Hennessy.
He said they chatted for about 15 minutes, during which time Brandon Hennessy and Ken Fitzsimons arrived. As Mr Moore was showing Ken Fitzsimons a photograph on his phone, he said Jason Hennessy Jr ‘smashed’ the phone out of his hands and boxed him.
He said: “It was a punch to my jaw, I was stunned. I asked Jason, what did you do that for? I was after falling on the ground and Devon jumped up and began to punch me in the head.”
He said Jason Hennessy Jr struck him and shouted: “You know what this is about, I want the truth.” Ken Fitzsimons, he said, went to the garden and came back with a ‘breaker bar’, which Mr Moore described as “five feet of solid steel”. He said Ken Fitzsimons “walloped” him seven or eight times on the legs with the bar before striking his right arm, breaking it.
He said Jason Hennessy Jr told him to “tell us the truth” and asked what he, Mr Moore, had said to two named people. Mr Moore told them he hadn’t seen the two people for more than a year and begged to be allowed to leave.
Brandon Hennessy, he said, “came in like a mad man, screaming at me”. He said Brandon said he had previously lied to Mr Moore when he told him that they [the Hennessys] didn’t have bullet proof windows at the top of the house. He said Brandon told him: “I told you on purpose because I knew you would go back and tell the lads.”
Mr Moore said Brandon took the breaker bar and struck him repeatedly over the body. Devon Hennessy, he said, told Brandon to stop because he would kill him. “If you don’t like it, go out the back,” Mr Moore alleged Brandon said to his brother.
Jason Hennessy Jr left and returned to the shed, he said, with a blue camping stove and a “cattle marker” with ‘RAT’ on it. He said Jason Hennessy Jr used the gas stove to heat the marker.
“I was pleading with all four of them to let me leave, but they wouldn’t,” he said. Mr Moore said Dean Fitzsimons then entered through the back door of the shed and said: “I’ve been waiting on you,” before picking up the breaker bar and hitting Mr Moore. Ken Fitzsimons, he said, picked up an axe and struck him with the blunt side.
Dean Fitzsimons, he said, threatened to cut off his ears with a Stanley knife before “waterboarding” him using a towel and a bucket of water. Mr Moore said: “I thought I was going to drown. I couldn’t breathe. I thought I was going to be murdered.” Mr Moore alleged that Dean took the towel away and, standing above him, told him to tell the truth or he would “leave in a body bag”.
“I kept saying I knew nothing and begging, let me go,” he said. Jason Hennessy Jr, he said, took the cattle marker and used it on his stomach first. Mr Moore said: “I was screaming, I never felt such pain before. I was pleading for mercy.”
Dean Fitzsimons, he said, put the Stanley knife to his ear but Jason Hennessy Jr said, “not yet” and started beating Mr Moore before tying him up with a dog lead.
When he was tied, Mr Moore alleged they branded him on his back and while Devon asked them to stop, they kept beating him. He said that Jason Hennessy Jr insisted that he would not be allowed to leave until telling the truth. Mr Moore said he told them: “I can’t talk because I don’t know anything.”
He said Jason Hennessy Jr wanted to know who set him up at Costa Coffee and pressed the hot iron against his head before placing it back on the stove. Brandon and Dean, he said, held his arms while Jason Hennessy Jr branded him on the forehead, holding it for seven or eight seconds. “I was screaming with pain, pleading to let me go,” Mr Moore said.
He said he heard Brandon saying they should pull down his tracksuit and “rape him with a stick” before Dean stood on his back and “danced” on his neck, choking him. Devon Hennessy, he said, asked them to let Mr Moore go.
Mr Moore said Dean “rammed” the iron into the right side of his head for seven or eight seconds before Jason Henessy Jr told him to get up and allowed him to leave. He recalled stumbling to his car and struggling to start the engine. He called to his father’s house nearby and was taken to hospital by ambulance.
He added: “I was kept against my will. I did not look for this. My face and body are destroyed. They held me hostage and beat me for over one hour. I thought I would die several times. I hope these markings are not permanent.”
Jason Hennessy Jr and Brandon Hennessy, of Sheephill Avenue, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, along with Kenneth Fitzsimons and Dean Fitzsimons, of Castlecurragh Vale, Mulhuddart, Dublin 15 were charged with false imprisonment, intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm, and with participating in or contributing to the activity of a criminal organisation by assaulting Mr Moore, causing him serious harm.
The offences were alleged to have happened on February 12, 2025, at a house on Sheephill Avenue, Blanchardstown in Dublin 15.
Jason Hennessy Jr was further charged with threatening to damage property and producing a branding stamp to intimidate another person during a dispute or a fight on the same date and at the same location.
Brandon Hennessy was charged with producing a “steel breaker bar” in a manner likely to intimidate another person while committing or appearing to be about to commit an assault.
Dean Fitzsimons was charged with making a threat to kill or cause serious harm to the alleged victim and producing a metal branding stamp and a steel breaker bar.
Kenneth Fitzsimons was charged with producing a steel breaker bar and an axe during the course of a dispute or fight.
Devon Hennessy, of Edgewood Lawns, Corduff, Dublin 15 has previously pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning and assaulting Mr Moore for the purpose of enhancing the activities of a criminal gang. He is not part of the current trial.
The trial was heard by Ms Justice Karen O’Connor, Her Honour Judge Sarah Berkeley and Judge Fiona Lydon.
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