Tiger raiders had insider info, trial told

David Byrne (39), of Old Brazeel Way, Knocksedan, Swords, Co Dublin, and Niall Byrne (29), of Crumlin Road Flats, Crumlin Road, Dublin, have both pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to falsely imprisoning the Richardson family at Ashcroft, Raheny, north Dublin city, on March 13 and 14, 2005.

They have also pleaded not guilty to robbing Paul Richardson and Securicor of €2,280,000 on the same date.

Both men are alleged to have been members of an armed gang that held Mr Richardson, a Securicor worker, and his family hostage as part of the raid.

Mr Richardson told Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, that one of the kidnappers told him that he was to go to work as normal and leave the cash at a pre-arranged drop-off point.

During this conversation, Mr Richardson said that the man knew about a "ten-eleven" code, which was a Securicor call sign used to give information from a van back to the control room.

truth

The kidnapper also asked Mr Richardson about using a "buster button", which is a button used to alert the control room in an emergency situation.

He said he believed that the kidnapper was testing him to see if Mr Richardson was telling the truth about the security procedures in place.

In cross examination, Mr Richardson told defence counsel for Niall Byrne, Feargal Kavanagh, that the phrases "ten-eleven" and "buster button" had been in use with Securicor for at least eight years.

He said that during those years he had noticed a turnover in staff but didn't know how many staff had left.

He said he didn't know if the company's walkie talkie communications were encrypted or private.

Mr Richardson also told the court that throughout the morning of the raid he received a number of threatening phone calls from a man with a Northern Irish accent. He said at one stage the man rang and told him that Mr Richardson "was not to f*** him up".

The trial continues.

hnews@herald.ie