Three men on trial in the Securicor 'tiger kidnapping' case have been found guilty after the longest criminal trial in the history of the State.
They were Jason Kavanagh (34) of Parslickstown Court, Ladyswell, Dublin, Christopher Corcoran (61), of Bayside Boulevard North, Sutton, Dublin and Mark Farrelly (37), of Moatview Court, Priorswood, Dublin. The three were each found guilty on five charges.
The jury failed to reach a verdict on the charges against David Byrne (36) of Old Brazeel Way, Knocksedan, Swords and Niall Byrne (27), of Aughavanagh Road, Crumlin.
All the men had denied robbing €2.28 million from Paul Richardson and Securicor and had also pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning members of the Richardson family - Marie Richardson and her sons, Ian (then 17) and Kevin (then 13) - on March 13th and 14th, 2005.
Judge Tony Hunt thanked the jury of seven men and four women for their work on what has become the longest-running criminal trial in the history of the State, and complimented them for the long hours they put into reaching verdicts. The jury had deliberated for 22 hours over three days.
Prosecuting counsel Denis Vaughan Buckley SC asked that the men be remanded in custody pending sentence in November.
The trial revolved around three main points of evidence, DNA tests, CCTV footage and mobile phone tracking.
Detective Inspector Martin Mooney told the court during the trial that using call-trace data from service providers he was able to draw up charts showing the times, duration and general location of many mobile phone calls between a small group of numbers during the course of the robbery. Most of them lasted well under a minute.
Det Insp Mooney said each call had to be routed through a particular mobile phone mast and whichever mast was used showed the general area of the caller.
The records showed several of the callers moving location rapidly and frequently throughout the night and early morning in locations that included Raheny, the Malahide Road, Baldoyle, Coolock, and Chapelizod as well as many others.
Following the verdcit an emotional Paul Richardson stood outside court with his family and told of the trauma they had faced since the kidnapping.
“It’s been a very traumatic time for over four years for my wife, my two sons and myself," he told reporters.
“I’d just liked to say a big thank you to the jury in this case, to the legal teams, the gardaí and to our friends, who have been with us through thick and thin with this. It’s been hard.”
Mr Richardson said he believed justice had been served. Asked if they would ever get over the experience, his wife Marie repied, ““We have to move on. It has brought closure there has been a sense of relief. It’s over, we can hopefully move on."