Trial of man accused of assisting armed robbers begins
The trial of a Meath resident accused of possessing a firearm and assisting armed robbers has begun at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Emma Radford (aged 34) of Johnstown Wood, Navan has pleaded not guilty to possessing the Beretta double barrel shotgun, handling property stolen from a Costcutters store in Skerries and assisting two armed robbers on February 22, 2007.
Prosecution counsel, Ms Fiona Murphy BL, told the jury in her opening address that it would hear how gardaí saw the accused pass something to two males in a car outside her former home at The Cresent, Larchill, Santry, before they drove off and returned some time later with takings from the robbery at Costcutters.
Ms Murphy told the jury that Garda witnesses would describe finding the sawn-off shotgun, €400 cash and personal items taken from the Costcutters robbery, when they raided the accused’s house after seeing the two men follow her inside.
Detective Superintendent Dominic Hayes said gardaí with the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation saw the accused speak with the occupants of a stolen black Honda Civic car outside her former home at around 6.30pm.
Det. Supt Hayes told Ms Murphy that gardaíi lost the stolen vehicle as it headed towards Skerries but decided to regroup outside Ms Radford’s Santry home when they heard about the robbery, anticipating the men would return.
He said his surveillance team saw Ms Radford come out of the house and speak with the men in the car before they followed her inside.
He said one man admitted robbing the store after the Garda raid, where his colleagues arrested the men with Ms Radford and found the gun and ammunition.
Ms Murphy read out Garda statements of two of the Costcutters staff where they described armed men wearing balaclavas forcing them into the shop’s office, threatening them and demanding they open the safe.
One shop assistant, a Latvian national, described in her statement that the more aggressive "fat" man punched her in the face when she tried to explain to him that there was little cash in the office’s ATM.
The second shop assistant, who was 17 years old at the time, told gardaí that the "nervous skinny guy" holding the gun didn’t know how to work it because "it kept opening" when the "fat" man shouted at him to shoot at the ATM.
The two staff members told gardai that the men ran out of the office when they noticed on the its CCTV monitor that there were cutomers in the shop.
The trial continues before Judge Desmond Hogan and a jury of seven men and five women.
