Man to face £26m bank raid trial in North

The trial of a man accused of the £26.5m (€32.8m) Northern Bank robbery in Belfast will start today.

Christopher Ward, 26, who was a bank official with the bank in Donegall Square West at the time of what was the biggest robbery in British banking history, denies all charges.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the robbery was the work of the IRA - something both it and Sinn Féin have repeatedly denied.

Ward – who faces no charge involving the IRA – denies a charge of robbing the bank in December 2004 and two further charges of falsely imprisoning bank colleague Kevin McMullan and his wife Karen.

The accused, from Colinmill in Poleglass on the western outskirts of Belfast, has been on bail since being charged in December 2005.

The trial at Belfast Crown Court will be held under the Diplock system where a judge sits without a jury and it is expected to run for a considerable time.

The robbery caused a furore in the North and after the PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde declared it was the work of the IRA, set back efforts the British Government was making at the time to restore devolution at Stormont by getting unionists to agree to go back into government with Sinn Féin.

It was only in May last year that devolution was restored with the then Democratic Unionist leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, becoming First Minister with Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness the Deputy First Minister.

Ward is the only person in the North to stand trial in connection with the robbery – charges against a co-accused were dropped as were those against a third person who had been charged with withholding information.

Cork chef, Don Bullman, who was arrested by gardaí as part of their investigation into the robbery, was last year jailed for IRA membership.

Arrested outside Dublin’s Heuston station in possession of a Daz washing power box containing more than €90,000 two months after the Belfast robbery, he was not charged directly in connection with the robbery.

In March a financial adviser from Co Cork, Timothy Cunningham, was released on bail after being charged in connection with an alleged IRA money laundering racket set up after the Northern Bank robbery.