DNA tests, CCTV and cell phones played key roles in trial
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WICKLOW, Dublin, Spain and the Philippines. These were all locations involved in the trial which secured the first conviction for a tiger kidnapping in Ireland.
The Richardson family were taken from their home in Raheny in March 2005. Paul Richardson was forced to go to work and take €2.28m in cash for the robbers while his wife Marie, and sons Kevin and Ian, were brought to the woods in Wicklow.
When the case finally came to court the jury heard there was "a strong connection" between the three men as well as evidence that Jason Farrelly and Christopher Corcoran travelled to Spain together immediately after the robbery.
Two additional members of the gang that took part in the robbery are believed to have fled to the Philippines and gardai are continuing to search for them.
Yesterday Mr Justice Tony Hunt took the trio's previous convictions into account when passing sentence.
Convictions
Corcoran had two previous convictions, including possession of an offensive weapon. Kavanagh had 20 previous convictions dating back to 1993, including handling stolen property, forgery and assault. He had never been in prison except for a three-month sentence imposed in 1994. Farrelly had six previous convictions including burglary and assault.
The trial revolved around DNA tests, CCTV footage and mobile-phone tracking.
Det Insp Martin Mooney told the court that by 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.
The court was also told that the kidnappers knew the terminology used by Securicor staff. Paul Richardson had described how one of the raiders said to him in private: "You give a 10/11." This was a Securicor call code to let the control centre know that all crew, walkie-talkies and the smokie, or cash-box, were in the van before it started its ATM rounds.
The smokie referred to a security device inside the cash box, which exploded in smoke when the box was moved a certain distance from the van and soiled the money with ink.
- Edel Kennedy
Irish Independent
