Accused allegedly ID’D with new technique
‘Extremely impressive’ method used by gardai in attack probe
GARDAI used an “extremely impressive” new method when tasked with identifying three of the men accused of abducting and assaulting Kevin Lunney, the Special Criminal Court heard.
Defence counsel Michael O’higgins said officers being separated and shown CCTV footage and stills without any indication of what was being investigated, eliminates the possibility identification evidence will be contaminated or that they will be influenced by their colleagues.
Inspector Stephen Mullen told Mr O’higgins that he developed the new process.
He said a number of gardai who might have knowledge of the people in the footage were selected but were not told what they were viewing or the context for it.
They were put in a “controlled environment”, he stated, with each officer viewing the footage independently.
Everything was recorded on video and each member was asked to make a statement at the earliest practicable time. He agreed with Mr O’higgins that he developed the new procedure after previous cases showed there was room for improvement.
Having heard evidence from several gardai, Mr O’higgins and lawyers for the other accused withdrew their objections to the admissibility of identification evidence.
A 40-year-old man known as YZ, Alan O’brien, 40, of Shelmalier Road, East Wall, Dublin, Darren Redmond, 27, from Caledon Road, East Wall and Luke O’reilly, 67, with an address at Mullahoran Lower, Kilcogy, Co Cavan, have all pleaded not guilty to false imprisonment and intentionally causing serious harm to Mr Lunney at Drumbrade, Ballinagh, Co Cavan on September 17, 2019.
The director of Quinn Industrial Holdings has told the court he was bundled into the boot of a car near his home and driven to a container where he was threatened and told to resign.
His abductors cut him with a Stanley knife, stripped him to his boxer shorts, doused him in bleach, broke his leg, beat him on the ground, cut his face and scored the letters QIH into his chest.
They left him bloodied, beaten and shivering on a country road at Drumcoghill in Co Cavan where he was discovered by a man driving a tractor.
Garda Eric Keogh of Store Street Garda station told prosecutor Sean Guerin he is involved in “Small Area Policing”, where certain gardai are assigned small neighbourhoods where they must have a high visibility, get to know locals and “be aware of everything that goes on”.
He was assigned an area of Dublin 3 where he would regularly call into shops and businesses and meet people face-to-face. On November 5, 2019, he received an email from a detective inspector asking him to come to Store Street Garda station to look at CCTV. He said he was not told what was being investigated or who might be identified.
He told the court he identified YZ at an apartment block in Dublin 3, at an Applegreen at Rahardrum, Virginia, Co Cavan and at a Spar shop on Portland Row on various dates including the day Mr Lunney was abducted and the previous day.
Under cross examination, Garda Keogh said it was a “coincidence” he had inquired about YZ on the Garda Pulse system earlier in the afternoon when he was asked to look at CCTV footage and about Alan O’brien two days earlier.
The trial continues.