Jury fail to reach a verdict in cash-in-transit raid trial
A jury has failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a man accused of plotting to steal from a cash-in-transit van in Kildare four and half years ago.
Joseph Warren (aged 30) of Belclare Crescent, Ballymun had pleaded not guilty to conspiring to steal cash from Chubb Ireland at Tesco supermarket on the Shackleton Road in Celbridge on Nov 2, 2007.
It was day 17 of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The jury asked to hear the evidence of Detective Superintendent Dominic Hayes and crime journalist Paul Williams again before the foreman told Judge Tony Hunt they were not able to reach a verdict on which 10 or more of them could agree.
The jury of seven women and five men had spent seven hours over three days considering the verdict.
Warren claimed during the trial that he was under duress from Eamonn Dunne to get involved in the raid.
He said he got a Skoda Octavia from Dunne “on tick” and when he was slow to pay back the debt Dunne told him he had no option but to get involved in this raid.
Warren claimed Dunne told him he would “be on top of Marlo” and “seeing god” if he didn’t do as instructed.
He said he knew at that time that Dunne was a gangster and “was a very, very serious man”. He said it was in the papers that Dunne had killed another criminal, Martin “Marlo” Hyland.
“I was frightened. I was told there was no way out of this. He (Dunne) lay down the law. It’s either his way or the highway. That’s how he operated,” Warren told the jury.
During the trial Paul Williams gave evidence that Willie Hynes and John Mangan were allegedly responsible for the double murder of Marlo Hyland and innocent plumber Anthony Campbell and that the late Eamonn Dunne acted as the getaway driver.
Judge Hunt thanked the jury for its “honest and conscientious” approach to the trial before he discharged it and excused the members from service for life.
He remanded Warren on continuing bail to a date next week when it is expected a date for re-trial will be set.
