Alleged raiders made dozens of calls, court hears

THE trial of two men accused of taking part in a €2.28 million tiger kidnapping robbery has heard evidence of dozens of phonecalls allegedly made by the raiders during the incident.

David Byrne, aged 39, of Old Brazeel Way, Knocksedan, Swords, Co Dublin, and Niall Byrne, aged 29, of Crumlin Road Flats, Crumlin Rd, Dublin, have both pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to falsely imprisoning the Richardson family at Ashcroft, Raheny, on March 13 and 14, 2005. They also pleaded not guilty to robbing Paul Richardson and Securicor of €2,28m.

Detective Inspector Martin Mooney told Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, that he compiled the records using call trace data from the mobile service providers.

Using this information, he was able to draw up charts showing the times, duration and general location of the calls. He produced charts showing frequent calls between a small group of numbers, most lasting well under a minute, during the course of the robbery.

He said each phonecall had to be routed through a particular mobile phone mast and whichever mast was used showed the general area of the caller. The records show several callers moving location rapidly and frequently throughout the night and early morning.

The court heard the nine numbers relevant to the probe were drawn up after gardaí analysed mobile phone traffic between Raheny and the Dublin mountains, where Mr Richardson’s wife and sons were held in a car overnight.

James O’Gorman from O2 Ireland Ltd told Fergal Kavanagh, defending Niall Byrne, that all call data in his company’s records was “accurate” but some call data might not be captured.

The trial continues.