Five members of a family-based organised crime group who beat, burned, stabbed and branded another man with the word 'RAT' with a hot branding iron last year, have been jailed for between three and eight and a half years at the Special Criminal Court.
29-year-old Jason Hennessy Jr and 24-year-old Brandon Hennessy, of Sheephill Avenue, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, along with 46-year-old Kenneth Fitzsimons and 26-year-old Dean Fitzsimons, of Castlecurragh Vale, Mulhuddart, Dublin 15 pleaded guilty to assault causing harm at a house on Sheephill Avenue, Blanchardstown in Dublin 15.
They had originally been charged with more serious offences but the victim in the case, Barry Moore, refused to give evidence against them because "he was afraid."
A fifth man, 30-year-old Devon Hennessy from Edgewood Lawns, Corduff, Dublin 15 pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning and attacking the victim for the purpose of enhancing the activities of a criminal gang.
The attack happened on 12 February 2025, at a house on Sheephill Avenue, Blanchardstown in Dublin 15.
Mr Moore arrived at Jason Hennessy's home on Sheephill Avenue about 6.15pm to buy a tracksuit.
The 36-year-old went in the back gate into a shed at the back where he met Devon Hennessy and Jason Hennessy Jr.
He said they chatted for about 15 minutes, during which time Brandon Hennessy and Kenneth Fitzsimons arrived.
As Mr Moore was showing Kenneth Fitzsimons a photograph on his phone, he said Jason Hennessy Jr "smashed" the phone out of his hands and boxed him.
"It was a punch to my jaw, I was stunned," he said. "I asked Jason, what did you do that for? I was after falling to the ground.
"Devon then 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."
Kenneth 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 Kenneth Fitzsimons "walloped" him seven or eight times on the legs with the bar, before striking his right arm.
"He hit me so hard he broke my right arm," Mr Moore said.
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 Hennessy 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 Hennessy told him: "I told you on purpose because I knew you would go back and tell the lads."
Mr Moore said Brandon Hennessy took the breaker bar and "hammered me with it", striking him repeatedly all over the body.
Devon Hennessy, he said, told Brandon Hennessy to stop because he would kill him.
"If you don't like it, go out the back," Mr Moore said Brandon Hennessy replied 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, and used the gas stove to heat the branding iron.
"He’ll talk after this," Jason Hennessy Jr said.
"I was pleading with all four of them to let me leave, but they wouldn't," Mr Moore said.
He also said Dean Fitzsimons then drove in through the back door of the shed on an e-bike, drove over him and said: "I've been waiting on you," before picking up the breaker bar and hitting Mr Moore.
Kenneth 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.
"I thought I was going to drown. I couldn't breathe," Mr Moore said. "I thought I was going to be murdered."
He also said that Dean Fitzsimons 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.
"I was screaming, I never felt such pain before. I was pleading for mercy," he said.
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 Hennessy asked them to stop, they kept beating him.
He said that Jason Hennessy Jr insisted that he would not be allowed to leave until he told the truth.
"I can't talk because I don't know anything," Mr Moore said he told them.
He said Jason Hennessy Jr wanted to know who set him up at a Costa coffee shop, and pressed the hot iron against his head before placing it back on the stove.
Brandon Hennessy and Dean Fitzsimons, 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.
Each of the letters R,A,T was thick and deep and measured 4cm.
He said he heard Brandon Hennessy saying they should pull down his tracksuit and "rape him with a stick" before Dean Fitzsimons stood on his back and "danced" on his neck, choking him.
Devon Hennessy, he said, asked them to let Mr Moore go.
Jason Hennessy Jr said: "We should burn his feet."
Mr Moore said Dean Fitzsimons "rammed" the iron into the right side of his head for seven or eight seconds, before Jason Hennessy 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.
Throughout the attack, Mr Moore said Dean Fitzsimons, Jason Hennessy Jr and Brandon Hennessy made references to his children.
"I was kept against my will. I did not look for this," he said.
"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."
Mr Moore was interviewed by Detective Garda Stuart Gleeson the day after the attack but subsequently refused to testify in court.
The five men subsequently pleaded guilty and apologised for their roles the attack.
Gardaí later found the cattle branding iron used on Mr Moore in an area of waste ground. He has also had skin grafts to help heal his burns.
The court was told that Mr Moore was still recovering and remains in "quite a bit of pain."
Sergeant Emma Ryan said that at the time of the attack, there was a feud between the Hennessys and another organised crime gang based in Finglas.
Jason Hennessy Jr referenced two members of that gang when demanding that Mr Moore "tell the truth" about what he said to those individuals.
Jason Hennessy Jr also referenced the feud again when he demanded to know who had set him up for an attack while he was at a Costa coffee shop.
The feud arose following the murder of Jason Hennessy Snr, the father of Devon Hennessy, Brandon Hennessy and Jason Hennessy Jr, who was shot dead in Browne's Steakhouse in Blanchardstown on Christmas Eve, 2023.
The gunman, Tristan Sherry, was beaten to death at the scene.
Devon Hennessy’s counsel Mark Lynam said the feud that led to their father's fatal shooting had also led to a number of attempts on Devon Hennessy's life, giving rise to "anger, paranoia and fear".
John Fitzgerald SC, for Jason Hennessy Jr, said his father's killing had a "considerable effect on him", but that he feels remorse for his role and wanted to express that to the victim.
He said Jason Hennessy Jr wants to be a good father, and does not wish to be defined by this assault or by how he is portrayed in the media.
John Berry SC, for Brandon Hennessy, said his client is the youngest of the offenders. He was convicted of violent disorder arising out of his father's killing and was on bail for that offence at the time of the assault on Mr Moore.
His father's violent death "led to a great deal of anger in him," he said, but he has spent one year in custody "reflecting on where that anger has brought him".
Mr Berry said Brandon Hennessy wants to apologise to Mr Moore for the "pain and suffering", and for taking up court and garda time.
Michael Bowman SC, for Dean Fitzsimons, said his client has been left "devastated" by the passing of his mother while he has been in custody. He apologised to Mr Moore and said he wants to "turn his life around".
Keith Spencer BL, for Kenneth Fitzsimons, said it is a "source of great shame" for his client that he has contributed to the "cycle of criminality" by participating in the offence with his son. He also apologised to Mr Moore.
Ms Justice Karen O'Connor described it as a violent vicious and ongoing attack involving a number of weapons, a branding iron, an e-bike, a breaker bar, a Stanley knife, an axe and waterboarding.
She said it was difficult for the court to accept remorse from the men except for Devon Hennessy who pleaded guilty at an early stage.
"We do accept they have expressed remorse but it was late in the day when the trial had started so we can’t attach huge weight to it," she said.
"The facts of the case are shocking," she said. "Words are not sufficient to describe the horror which bypasses any notion of humanity."
She also described the photographs of the branding of Mr Moore as "of a most disturbing nature".
The court must sentence four of the men for assault causing harm with a maximum sentence of ten years after the plea was accepted by the DPP, she said.
Jason Hennessy Jr was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.
Brandon Hennessy was sentenced to six years in prison, but because he committed the offence on bail the sentence is consecutive to one he is serving which concludes on 16 February 2028. Today's sentence begins then.
Devon Hennessy was sentenced to three years in prison because he tried to intervene and pleaded guilty at an early stage.
Dean Fitzsimons was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, while his father Kenneth Fitzsimons was sentenced eight years in prison.
