A mother who was brutally tortured in a flat in Dublin's north inner city has said her life has been ruined by the men who attacked her over the course of three hours last September.
"They really ruined and stripped my life away from me. It took everything from me," Natalie Ennis told Prime Time.
Ms Ennis was abducted and tortured after a batch of drugs which she knew nothing about went missing from a house she was sharing with several others.
She was rescued after being brought to a city centre flat which gardaí coincidentally raided as part of a separate investigation.
In her victim impact statement Ms Ennis said that if "the police hadn't come in that day" she was "sure" she was dead.
Five men involved in the assault were jailed on Wednesday for between eight-and-a-half and 14 years.
She suffered numerous broken facial bones, damaged teeth, significant lacerations across her head and scalp as well as a broken elbow and burns.
Speaking to Prime Time, Ms Ennis said the assault has left her traumatised, physically scarred, and fearful to leave her home.
"They beat me with metal poles. They were coming at me with flying kicks into the face. They were standing on my head on the floor. Then they were heating up hammers and sticking them to my legs... I had a hatchet held to my neck and then it was stuck in my head," she said.
"After that, they spat at me as well. That was one thing. They were just beating me to a pulp. There's no words for it."
One of the men, she said, "was coming at me with a blowtorch and he was putting in my face and burnt my ear and my face."
"It was just unbearable. The pain was unbearable. I had bones sticking out of my elbow...it was just pure evil what they done to me."
Ms Ennis was left with serious injuries after the attack, that she still suffers from today.
"I had staples in my head leaving hospital as well. I can't remember how many, but it was a good lot from the hatchet being stuck in my head," she said. "I can't feel that side of my face still to this day."
Her teeth were also significantly damaged. "My teeth was knocked down my head, so my confidence when I'm smiling, it's just, I don't really smile."
At one point during the assault, she said, the men threatened to rape her.
"They said they were going to strip me and bugger me in the room... I thought I wasn't getting out of it at all. I wouldn't have been out of that house. I would have been coming out in a box, a body bag."
The men also threatened to rape her daughter, she said. "They [said they] were going to go to my daughter's school, she was 17 at the time, and they were going to rape her."
Ms Ennis said the attack has destroyed her ability to live a normal life.
"I'm afraid. I'm afraid to walk out some days ... I can't get on any public transport. I can't go near the city centre. I'm just going to my local shops and back every day. And that's still a fright. I'm still looking over my shoulder."
The psychological impact has also been severe, and she struggles to sleep most nights.
"When I sleep, I get night terrors. Very bad night terrors," she said.
However, the sentencing did offer her some closure and relief.
"It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. A heavy weight lifted off my shoulders...I am over the moon for what they got, the justice that I deserve."
Despite the sentencing, Natalie is still in recovery and is still waiting for a psychiatric appointment ten months after her attack. Advocacy groups have said this reflects broader gaps in victim support services for survivors of violent crime in Ireland.
"I just feel like I need a lot of help. They basically, they just ruined me," Ms Ennis said.
"I just kind of need help, like that's why I'm waiting on psychiatrists and stuff like that."
"I can't go back living a normal life just yet, to be honest with you. They really ruined and stripped my life away from me. It took everything from me."
Moving forward, Ms Ennis said she is living for her daughter’s sake.
"I'm hoping I'm going to try move on and live happily with my daughter and hopefully get help to be housed and just live a normal life."
"For my daughter I'm going to try my best just to move on from it and try put it behind. But I don't think that's going to happen, it'll always be in my head."
The full interview with Natalie Ennis with reporter Conor Wilson, and producer Brídóg Ní Bhuachalla, was broadcast on the 31 July edition of Prime Time on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
