Mark Heffernan faces assault and false imprisonment trial

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Mark Heffernan is on trial at the non-jury Special Criminal Court over allegations that he assaulted and falsely imprisoned Dan Quilligan in Limerick. He has pleaded not guilty to assaulting Quilligan and causing him harm at Larch Court, Kennedy Park, on September 14th, 2015, and to falsely imprisoning him there on the same date.

A protected witness told the trial that Heffernan was present in a house where a nail-gun attack was carried out. The prosecution case was that three men were involved in a joint enterprise in which Quilligan was beaten and his left foot was pinned to a kitchen floor with a nail-gun.

Tom Lillis gave evidence on March 21st, 2017, saying Heffernan and Gerard Mackin came into the sitting-room wearing white suits, before he later returned to find blood in the kitchen. The report said the evidence was being heard during a voir dire, and that the trial continued. The proceedings were reported on March 21st, 2017.