Garda inquiry into kidnapping

GARDAÍ hope to interview mother-of-three Helen Judge today or tomorrow in a bid to piece together who kidnapped her and why.

Reliable sources also confirmed yesterday that gardaí are not investigating her husband Liam Judge for any involvement in drug trafficking.

This follows media claims that Mr Judge, a 48-year-old haulier, is connected to a major Dublin dealer and, in turn, to one of the country’s biggest traffickers based in the Netherlands. Allegations have been made that a Dublin dealer, from Baldoyle, and his Amsterdam boss, known as the Penguin, suspected Judge of passing information to the gardaí about their drug shipments, some of which were intercepted. Garda sources rejected claims that Judge was an informant and stress they do not suspect him of involvement in drugs.

Speculation has also been raised because of Mr Judge’s relationship with Tracy Gilligan, the 28-year-old daughter of convicted drug baron John Gilligan.

However, it is understood that Judge did not know her through any previous alleged drug-related dealings with her father. Rather, it is thought he knew her father through other business activity and was friends with Mr Gilligan’s wife Geraldine. Sources maintain that Mr Judge may have been involved with cigarette and alcohol smugglers in the past, although he has no convictions for any such involvement. The Penguin is suspected of being involved in cigarette smuggling. This may account for the alleged links between the two.

Meanwhile, gardaí said yesterday that the results of forensic tests carried out at the home of Ms Judge in Allenwood, Co Kildare, were ongoing.

Ms Judge, 41, was kidnapped in the middle of the night from her bungalow early yesterday week, barefooted and only wearing her night clothes.

She was released some 50 hours later in a remote forested area of the Cooley Mountains in Co Louth and it is not known if her family or Mr Judge paid a

200,000 ransom.

There are also claims that Mr Gilligan may have ordered his hardmen on the outside to threaten the kidnappers to leave her go.

Gardaí yesterday repeated that Helen Judge was a completely innocent party and that her kidnapping is of primary concern.