Two men and a woman have been charged after a woman reported she was “tortured”, beaten and burned during a 13-hour violent ordeal in Tallaght, Dublin.
Paul Walsh (39), Sarahanne Smith (36) and 44-year-old James Colton, all from Tallaght, appeared before Judge Treasa Kelly at Dublin District Court on Wednesday.
It follows a Garda investigation into a woman’s complaint that she was bound and placed in a car boot, attacked, gagged, drugged and had her hair shaved, after the incident commenced in the early hours of October 7th.
All three defendants were charged with false imprisonment of the complainant at Colton’s home, at Fortunestown Close.
Walsh and Smith face additional charges of assault causing harm and production of various articles as weapons.
It was alleged that Smith, a mother of three, instigated the violence, which was suspected to have been caused by the loss of a handbag and a “paranoid” accusation that the complainant was seeing her partner.
A bail hearing proceeded after gardaí brought them to an emergency court sitting to object to their release.
Garda Aaron Melinn told the court that Colton, who did not apply for bail, “made no reply to charge”.
Det Garda Niamh O’Connor and Garda Brian Law objected to Walsh and Smith’s bail, citing the seriousness of the case and fears of witness intimidation.
They gave evidence that the injured party turned up at the Tallaght emergency department and contacted gardaí and said she had been tortured for 13 hours.
She told gardaí she had been “kidnapped, tied up, struck with metal bars, repeatedly assaulted and burned” and that she knew her attackers.
She said she had attended Colton’s home and was “forcibly restrained with zip ties to her wrists and ankles and severely beaten with kicks and punches to her body, and that she was burned by means of boiling water to her head, and by heated instruments to her face.”
She also alleged that clumps of her hair were removed by force with a head shaver and her hand was crushed forcefully using a mastic sealant gun tool.
The complainant alleged her attackers “poured ammonia on to her head”.
The woman claimed that Walsh and Smith “sustained this assault for two to three hours, during which they punched and kicked her as she lay on the floor.”
The alleged victim told gardaí that Smith heated a builder’s trowel until it was hot and then placed it on her face.
The woman alleged Walsh said: “This is where the pain is going to start.”
She maintained that the pair forced her to consume Tranax tablets, which she did out of fear.
CCTV footage obtained by gardaí showed the defendants at the house, the court heard. She was “screaming for help” but “whimpering” when placed in a car boot, the court heard.
It was alleged James Colton and Walsh spoke to the driver, an unknown person, and placed the woman in the car.
It was alleged that the car brought her away, but returned shortly afterwards with Walsh driving and Smith, who lived 180m (200 yards) away at Fortunestown Crescent, in the passenger seat.
The court heard the woman passed out and could not recall how long she was in the car but woke back in Colton’s house with a tourniquet around her arm and Smith holding her arm and uttering: “I told you to stop doing that”, implying that the injured woman had been injected with heroin.
She later stumbled from the house about hours later in “an extremely disoriented state”.
Walsh, of no fixed abode in Tallaght, said he had no legal representation but asked that the hearing proceed even though he said he found it “strange”.
He denied the claims, saying he was not a violent person. The court denied his bail application.
He and Colton are to appear at Cloverhill District Court on Tuesday.
Smith’s solicitor, John Shanley, said his client would live outside the area and abide by strict conditions. The judge held that the female accused could be granted bail, with a cashless €1,000 bond but would have to provide an alternative address outside Tallaght.