Suspected robbery accomplice thought job was 'suicidal'

A man accused of plotting to steal from a cash-in-transit van has told a jury he “bottled it” because he thought the job was “suicidal”.

Joseph Warren (aged 30) told the jury that he had been instructed by Eamonn Dunne to gain access to the Nissan Patrol jeep using a consaw so that Michael ‘Chino’ Ryan could get into it. He was then to walk away.

Mr Warren of Belclare Crescent, Ballymun has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to conspiring to steal cash from Chubb Ireland at Tesco supermarket on the Shackleton Road in Celbridge on November 2, 2007.

When asked by his counsel Alan Toal BL, at the end of his second day giving evidence before the jury, what was his state of mind on November 2, 2007, Mr Warren replied: “If I did not do exactly as I was told to do, I would be killed, dead, on top of Marlo…..executed.”

He agreed that he “acquired” a bullet proof vest after being released from custody in February 2008 and said that he was still wearing the same vest when Dunne was shot dead in April 2010.

He said he acted as a pallbearer in Dunne’s funeral because Dunne’s father had asked him to.

“Not many people wanted to carry the coffin and it was a big coffin that needed eight people to carry it,” Mr Warren said before he explained that his parents and Dunne’s parents had been friends for a long time.

Mr Warren agreed with Mr Toal that he “was most certainly” not a willing participant in the raid that day.

“Once I had seen what was involved. I just didn’t what to do it. It was new territory for me and it was not nice territory,” Mr Warren said.

He agreed with his counsel that he had been “the front guy” and the success or failure of the raid rested on his shoulders.

“Pretty much, yes,” the accused replied.

He was asked by Mr Toal how he was able to send pictures of “a scantily clad woman” to Dunne on the morning of the raid if he was “paralysed with fear” as he claimed.

Judge Tony Hunt reminded counsel that one of the women in the pictures was not clad at all.

“My mind-set was I was doing this job. I would not have any problems with him ever after that,” Mr Warren replied before he said he was driving at the time and Chino had his phone.

“I don’t even remember him (Chino) mentioning the photos. He was answering my calls. He had my phone,” Mr Warren told the jury before he suggested that Chino must have sent the photos.

Mr Warren told the jury that on November 2, 2007, he was told that the cash-in-transit vehicle was parked in the Tesco carpark in Cellbridge.

He parked the Mazda 626 he had been driving in sight of the Nissan Patrol. He took the consaw out of his boot and started it running while Chino walked ahead and approached the jeep.

He then noticed that Chino had keys to the jeep. He said he found it “strange” that he had been instructed to use the consaw to get into the vehicle if the gang already had keys for it. Mr Warren told his counsel that he then became “paralysed with fear”.

“Not only with what Eamonn had told me but the robbery itself. I had never done anything like that before.”

“I thought it was ludicrous, madness, in a full carpark, in full view of everyone,” Mr Warren said before he added that if he had used the consaw it would have drawn attention to them.

“It was a suicidal job. The jeep was parked right beside where people were getting their trolleys,” the accused continued.

He said he had been told earlier that no one would have been around and he thought that it was going to happen in a secluded place.

“I remember just thinking this is madness, this is not a way of getting out of debt,” Mr Warren said, having earlier told the jury that he been put under pressure to get involved because he owed €8,000 to Dunne.

“I turned the consaw off and I walked away. I changed my mind. I made a conscious decision that I am not going through with this,” Mr Warren said before he claimed he put his consaw back in his boot.

He said he then saw a “fella” running through the carpark, screaming and carrying a gun. He thought he was getting shot because he had not done the job.

Mr Warren told Mr Toal that he then started to walk away, rather than run as counsel suggested would have been the obvious thing to do. He said the man was walking towards Chino and he did not want to draw attention to himself.

He said he was arrested shortly afterwards and realised the man with the gun was a garda. He said he was glad he was arrested, “chuffed”.

Mr Warren told Mr Toal that when he was interviewed later by gardaí he did not want to implicate any of the others.

“I had to face the consequences of bottling it. I would have been doubly in trouble if I had implicated others in the interview,” Mr Warren said.

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