Pair jailed for tiger raid found not guilty after ‘dramatic’ ruling

Two men previously jailed for taking part in a 2005 tiger raid have been found not guilty after a “dramatic” ruling that mobile phone records cannot be used as evidence in the case.

Mark Farrelly, aged 43, and Christopher Corcoran, aged 67, were convicted in 2009 of kidnapping cash in transit van driver Paul Richardson and his family during a €2.28m robbery. They were sentenced to 25 years and 12 years respectively.

In 2012 they were freed after the convictions were overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeal on foot of a Supreme Court ruling that search warrants used in this and other investigations were unconstitutional. A retrial ended in December 2013 with a hung jury.