Man goes on trial for false imprisonment of woman in 2006

A woman was held prisoner as four masked men raided her Kildare home looking for money, it has been alleged at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Darren Doody (aged 42) of Oriel Street, Dublin 1 has pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Ashling Heneghan at Rochford Park in Kill on October 29, 2006.

Ms Heneghan told the trial that she lived in the house with her then boyfriend, William Ward, who was in Spain at the time. She said she was getting ready to go out and meet some friends when she heard a noise at her letterbox and investigated.

She saw a wrench lying at her front door and brought it inside before going upstairs. She told prosecuting counsel, Tara Burns BL, that she was in her bedroom when she heard people running up the stairs.

She said four males wearing balaclavas and scarves came into her room and she was either forced to the floor or fell down. She said they were looking for money and “turned the place upside down” and overturned the couches.

Ms Heneghan claimed one man, armed with a screwdriver, stayed with her for most of the time while the others came in and out of the room.

“They reassured me I would be ok and that they were just there to rob,” she told Ms Burns.

She told them she kept money in her jewellery box but one of the men replied that wasn’t the money they were looking for. She then told them about another stash of money in a wardrobe.

She claimed the men bound her hands with the cord of a phone charger and tied her legs with a pair of pyjama bottoms as well as putting a shirt over her head. After they fled she got herself free and called her boyfriend and the gardaí.

Ms Heneghan identified the phone charger when it was produced in court. She told the court she would rather not have to give evidence in the case because she has “moved on” in the five and a half years since the alleged incident.

The trial continues before Judge Patrick McCartan and a jury of five men and seven women.