Man jailed for six years after torturing teen

A man has been jailed for six years after he tied a 14-year-old boy to a radiator, threw boiling water down his trousers, and removed skin from his knees, knuckles, and fingertips with a cheese grater.

Alan Ellis, aged 21, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to false imprisonment and assault causing harm to the teenager on March 12, 2012.

Ellis, of Rathmines Rd Lower, Rathmines, brought the boy into a flat and said he wanted to show him how to tie a particular knot. He then used a hoover flex to tie the victim to the radiator before he tortured him for almost hour and a half.

Ellis has since been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

Judge Desmond Hogan sentenced him to a total of nine years in prison with three suspended for this and other offences, including assault causing harm and burglary.

After reading probation, medical, and psychiatric reports, Judge Hogan noted that Ellis had a very high risk of reoffending.

He said Ellis had “a propensity to do very violent things”, and that he seemed to be getting worse.

However, he said it was Ellis’s drug-taking that leads him to commit crime, not his mental problems.

Garda Eddie Fallon told Cormac Quinn BL, prosecuting, that Ellis was convinced the teenager had found a stash of drugs.

Ellis started to shout at him that he owed him “€3,000 for pills”, even though Garda Fallon said there was no evidence that the teenager had found any drugs or that he owed Ellis money.

The teenager managed to escape after he told Ellis that his father had some money and if he released him he would go to his house, get the cash, and return.

The teenager did not return and the gardaí were alerted but before officers arrived at the flat Ellis was attacked at his home and taken to James’s Hospital. He was arrested after he was discharged.

Garda Fallon told Mr Quinn that gardaí asked Ellis if he wanted to make a complaint in relation to the assault on him but he refused. He said no allegation has ever been made and gardaí do not know who carried out the attack.

A victim impact report before the court said the now 16-year-old boy had burns to his genitals and inner thighs. It was initially believed he would need skin grafts but the skin has since healed. He continues to receive treatment.

His mother outlined how the assault has changed her son’s life and he has since left school.

Ellis was also sentenced for two charges of burglary of his neighbour’s homes and stealing a Porsche at Knocklyon on Oct 6, 2011. He pleaded guilty to these offences.

Ellis further pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to a staff member at an Esso Service Station on Mount Merrion Rd on Feb 12, 2012.