Saturation media coverage of bank robbery recalled

THE saturation media coverage of the Northern Bank robbery in December 2004, in the Republic of Ireland was described yesterday in the trial of a father and son accused of laundering more than £3 million from that robbery.

Timothy (Ted) Cunningham, 60, of Woodbine Lodge, Farran, Co Cork, denies a total of 20 charges of money-laundering arising out of the robbery of £26.5m sterling from the Northern Bank in Belfast on December 20, 2004.

His son, Timothy John Cunningham, 33, of Church View, Farran, Co Cork, denies four similar charges.

Jane Hyland, prosecuting, told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that the robbery got saturation coverage at the time.

Press officer of An Garda Siochána, Superintendent John Gilligan, said in evidence: “On December 22, 2004, the day after the crime, the Northern Bank robbery story appeared on the front page of four national newspapers, Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner and Irish Daily Mail. In addition, it appeared on the internal pages of other papers.

“On December 23, 2004, it was on the front page of four national papers again. For each of the days following the original breaking of the story, it received extensive coverage.

“It received extensive coverage in the dailies and Sunday papers for an extended period up to ten days,” Supt Gilligan said.

The exact amount of money taken from the Northern Bank cash centre at Donegall Square West was not known at first and different figures — all exceeding £20m and up to £30m — appeared in the coverage.

Referring to the coverage on RTÉ, the superintendent said the story was covered extensively — in one Six-One News bulletin, it was referred to on four separate occasions.

Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Quilter was called to give evidence next. Before he was sworn in, a legal issue was raised in the absence of the jury.

After some time, Judge Cornelius Murphy called the jury back to Courtroom Two and told them to go home and return to continue the case at 12 noon today.

Last week, eight men and four women were sworn in. Before the case started on Tuesday, one man on the jury was discharged for personal reasons and a woman was sworn in to replace him.