The Special Criminal Court has acquitted two men accused of carrying out a 2013 credit union robbery in Co Louth during which Det Garda Adrian Donohoe was murdered.
After a trial lasting more than three months, Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, said the non-jury court was not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Co Armagh man James Flynn (32) was one of the direct participants in the robbery at Lordship Credit Union.
He said the evidence established Flynn was an active member of the gang that carried out the robbery and that he was intimately involved with garda murderer Aaron Brady and another man in the theft of a getaway car.
The judge said Flynn lied about his whereabouts at the time of the robbery and was involved with Brady and others in the planning and execution of the crime. He said Flynn drove his BMW to the site where the getaway car was burned out and brought the culprits away.
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Mr Justice Hunt said Flynn was an accessory before and after the event but that the State’s case was that Flynn was one of the four men directly involved and this had not been proven beyond doubt.
Guilty of conspiring
Earlier, the court found Flynn guilty of conspiring with Brady to steal a car that was used in the Lordship Credit Union robbery. A sentencing hearing is to be held on November 13th.
Flynn, from south Co Armagh, and Brendan Treanor (34), previously of Emer Terrace, Castletown Road, Dundalk, were charged with the robbery of €7,000 at Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan on January 25th, 2013. They were also charged with conspiring with Brady and others between September 11th, 2012, and January 23rd, 2013 to enter homes with the intention of stealing car keys. Both accused had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Brady (32), previously of New Road, Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, 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. He denied any involvement in the robbery and is awaiting an appeal against his conviction.
Mr Treanor was acquitted of the robbery charge by the court, which found no direct evidence to link him to the scene and insufficient evidence to convict him.
Mr Justice Hunt, sitting with Judge Sarah Berkeley and Judge Alan Mitchell, said whatever about Mr Treanor’s involvement with members of the gang who carried out the robbery, the prosecution had not excluded the reasonable possibility that the defendant was in fact at home at the time of it.
It was the prosecution’s case that Mr Treanor was one of four people who jumped over the wall of the credit union as a convoy of cars carrying cash and gardaí was blocked into the car park by a stolen Volkswagen Passat.
Closely associated
Mr Justice Hunt said although the court was satisfied from call data records that Mr Treanor was closely associated with the criminal gang involved and had approved of its activities, it could only consider the indictment presented to them. He said the court could not convict with a sufficient degree of certainty and had to return a not guilty verdict.
The pattern of Mr Treanor’s phone activity on the night was entirely consistent with some involvement in the robbery but did not serve to put him at the scene, the judge said. Other strands of evidence, he added, showed Mr Treanor’s potential involvement but fell short of “a compelling conclusion” that he was present at the scene.
Mr Treanor was also acquitted by the Special Criminal Court of a charge of conspiracy to commit burglaries, with the three-judge court finding that there was insufficient evidence to convict him.