Three deny £2m robbery and kidnap charges
Three men were today accused of robbing two cash transit companies in Northern Ireland of almost £2m (€3m).
They also face charges of kidnapping and armed robbery using a sawn-off shotgun and a pistol.
The three are alleged to have stolen £1.78m (€2.64m) from the Securicor and Brinks money transfer companies in Downpatrick and south Belfast in September 2004 and April 2005.
Police told Craigavon Magistrates’ Court that they were relying on the propensity to commit crime as well as circumstantial evidence to charge the men.
Cecil Walsh (aged 39), of no fixed address but believed to come from west Belfast, Mark Cavanagh (aged 32), from Upper Malven Road, and Gerard McElkerney (aged 38), of Ross Street, both in Belfast, deny the charges.
In the first incident, £490,000 (€727,400) was stolen from Securicor in Downpatrick, Co Down, on September 14, 2004. In the second £1.29m (€1.9m) was snatched from the Brinks company at a garage in south Belfast on April 12, 2005 by a gang alleged to have used a sawn-off shotgun and a pistol.
They three were also charged with kidnapping two people during the robberies.
A police officer told the court today that he believed he could connect the accused with the charges after questioning them at Antrim Serious Crime Suite.
He admitted under cross-examination from the men’s lawyer that the new power of suspecting a propensity to commit offences as well as the use of circumstantial evidence was behind the charge.
The officer said police had no eyewitness accounts or forensic evidence.
Cavanagh also faces a charge of driving a car at a policeman and causing grievous bodily injury.
His solicitor, Joe McVeigh, said: “The position is that these three men absolutely deny these charges.
“The difficulty is that the environment that prevails in Antrim Serious Crime Suite, given the high-profile prosecution of a member of the legal profession, means that both clients and lawyers up there in ASCS have no confidence that consultations aren’t being listened to.”
He added that police had refused to guarantee the privacy of talks with solicitors despite being asked by the accused.
“That is a really significant difficulty in terms of civil liberties and human rights in this jurisdiction,” he added. “One hopes someone has the courage of their convictions to step forward and do something about ASCS.”
When charged, the men replied they had no confidence in the confidentiality of their discussions and added that they categorically denied the charges.
A fourth man, Thomas McCorry (aged 38), from Norglen Parade, Belfast, is accused of separate offences of conspiracy to rob and possession of a firearm in December 2005.
All four were remanded in custody to appear again via videolink before Lisburn Magistrates’ Court on September 19.
