Back tattoo admitted into evidence in trial of two men accused over fatal Credit Union robbery

The Special Criminal Court has admitted into evidence a back tattoo featuring images alleged to be “almost a glorification” and a “pictorial admission” of involvement in a robbery that resulted in the fatal shooting of Det Garda Adrian Donohoe.

Brendan Treanor’s lawyers had argued that the tattoo - featuring guns, bullets, gangsters, money, knuckle dusters and a car similar to one alleged to have been used in the robbery - was irrelevant and should not form part of the prosecution case.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt on Wednesday ruled that the court will consider the tattoo as part of the overall evidence in the case, saying it would be a failure of logic, reason and common sense to disallow it.

Mr Treanor (34), previously of Emer Terrace, Castletown Road, Dundalk, Co Louth, and James Flynn (32), from south Armagh, are charged with the robbery of €7,000 at Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan, Co Louth on January 25th, 2013.

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They are also charged with, between September 11th, 2012 and January 23rd, 2013, conspiring with convicted garda-killer Aaron Brady and others to enter residential premises with the intention of stealing car keys.

They have pleaded not guilty to each charge.

Brady (31), previously of New Road, Crossmaglen, is serving a life sentence with a 40-year minimum having been found guilty of murdering Det Garda Donohoe and of the robbery at Lordship Credit Union. He is awaiting an appeal against his conviction.

Witness David Davies told Michael Lynn SC, for Mr Treanor, that he runs a tattoo parlour in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, and that Mr Treanor came to his studio in 2018 looking for a tattoo to cover up an existing one of a woman’s name on his back.

‘Gangster theme’

Mr Davies said the new tattoo had a “gangster theme”, which has become trendy in recent years. The witness said he did not draw Mr Treanor’s tattoo but was involved in the design process.

He said the car in the image, a BMW X5 with the registration plate ‘Boss BFT’, was based on Mr Treanor’s own car which was parked facing the window of the shop. A knuckle duster in the image is a common piece of body art, he said, adding that he had such a tattoo himself.

He said much of the imagery on Mr Treanor’s back, including of bank notes, bullets, a long firearm, a handgun and a woman wearing a balaclava while blowing smoke from the barrel of a gun, would have been sourced from the internet.

Mr Davies agreed with prosecution counsel Brendan Grehan SC that Mr Treanor would have suggested the images he wanted included in the tattoo.

During legal argument, Mr Grehan told the court that the prosecution relies on the tattoo as a piece of circumstantial evidence. He said the tattoo was “almost a glorification” of what happened at Lordship and pointed to five elements that he said a jury could consider as amounting to a “pictorial admission” that Mr Treanor was involved in the Lordship robbery.

The evidence, he said, suggested four raiders entered the credit union car park, one armed with a long-armed firearm which was fired across a car, fatally injuring Det Garda Donohoe. The driver of the getaway vehicle was alleged by one witness to have been a woman. There was also evidence that the raiders had a handgun and they left with a sum of cash.

‘Critical role’

One of the cars that allegedly “played a critical role” before and after the robbery was a BMW 5-Series, counsel said, similar to the car that forms the “centrepiece” of the tattoo.

In those circumstances, Mr Grehan said, the tattoo is “an item of circumstantial evidence which a jury are entitled to take into account in assessing the overall prosecution case”.

He said it is “a very curious matter” that in 2018 Mr Treanor decided to have that image tattooed on his back, when in 2013 he had gone to a police station in Northern Ireland to make a statement because of suspicions circulating that he had been involved in the Lordship robbery.

He said the fact Mr Treanor went “perhaps when he thought this was all behind him” to get this particular tattoo is a matter for a jury, in this case the three judges of the Special Criminal Court, to consider.

Mr Lynn told the court that the tattoo should not be admitted into evidence as it was irrelevant and has “no probative value going to any possible finding of guilt”. It was, he said, a “coverup tattoo” featuring common imagery with “nothing unusual”.

Mr Justice Hunt said that it was an odd way to cover up the tattoo given the background of the case.

The trial continues.