Tiger kidnapping driver 'heard rumours', court hears

The Securicor driver in a "tiger kidnapping" four years ago has confirmed there had been a rumour in his company that someone was followed home before the €2.28m robbery.

Mr Paul Richardson agreed under cross-examination that he had heard the rumour but wasn’t "privy to that information".

He agreed when Mr Feargal Kavanagh SC, defending Mr Niall Byrne, put it to him that if someone had followed him home they would have known he was married with children and other personal information.

Mr Byrne (aged 27), of Aughavanagh Road, Crumlin; David Byrne (aged 36) of Old Brazeel Way, Knocksedan, Swords; Mark Farrelly (aged 37), of Moatview Court, Priorswood; Christopher Corcoran (aged 61), of Bayside Boulevard North, Sutton; and Jason Kavanagh (aged 34), of Parslickstown Court, Ladyswell have all pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning the Richardson family on March 13 and 14, 2005.

They have also pleaded not guilty in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbing Mr Richardson and Securicor on the same date.

Mr Kavanagh (with Mr David Wheelahan BL) indicated that his client is a former Securicor worker accused of giving the company’s security information to the armed raiders.

Mr Richardson accepted that any of the 200 Securicor staff could have seen his work roster, which was posted on the canteen door, and that it was common knowledge that his assigned "Run 56" route was an ATM run.

He agreed with Mr Kavanagh that his wife had mentioned their house alarm going off a few days before the raid, but said he had passed it off as "probably the young fella next door hitting a ball against the window".

He earlier told Mr Dominic McGinn BL, prosecuting, that he collapsed when Securicor control centre informed him over the van’s radio that his wife and two sons were safe after their ordeal with armed captors near the Wicklow Mountains.

He had driven as far as Kinnegad, Co Meath after depositing the cash at a pub carpark in Lucan, with a promise from a "Northern Irish" man over the phone that he would be told via walkie-talkie where to meet his family.

He said: "At that stage I had become overwhelmed between pains in my chest and tears and not being able to breathe properly."

Mr Richardson’s eldest son described in detail the armed raiders who had forced their way into his home and the two others who took him captive at Cloon Wood in a stolen Jeep with his mother and brother.

Mr Ian Richardson told Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting, that a "big fat man" pointed a machine gun at him as he came in the door with his father after returning from his girlfriend’s house.

He said the man was "very fat", that he wore tanned Timberland desert boots and a navy boiler suit which didn’t seem to fit him because it was ripped at the crotch and the top was tied around his "huge" belly.

The second raider, who had fair stubble, carried a revolver, smelt of smoke and spoke with a gravel voice as if to disguise his voice.

The son said this man "went really red around his neck and chest like he was embarrassed" and kept patting him on the arm, saying "it was going to be alright".

This raider and the fat man both wore "proper" black balaclavas, unlike another raider who had fashioned a balaclava first from his pillow case and later from his brother’s school jumper.

He said the raider with a knife looked like the gang leader because he took his father into the dining room for a private chat.

He said the Jeep driver, who told the family to call him "John", wore a jacket zipped over his mouth and a baseball cap with the peak dipped low.

His passenger, who wore a Burberry scarf over his face, briefly called the driver "Alan" before checking himself and changing to "John".

These captors asked the Richardons to wait 15 minutes after they’d gone before they freed the cable ties which bound their hands and feet.

The trial continues before Judge Tony Hunt and a jury of seven men and five women.