Man pleads not guilty to €660k raid on post office worker

A MAN has gone on trial charged with kidnapping a post office worker, his partner and their baby daughter before robbing over €660,000 from the man’s workplace.

Jonathan Gill, 35, has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to falsely imprisoning Warren Nawn, Jean Marie Matthews and their tenweek-old baby in August 2011.

He has also pleaded not guilty to robbery of €661,125 at a post office in Drogheda, Co. Louth.

The High Court heard yesterday that the State will argue that Mr Gill, of Malahide Road, Swords, Co. Dublin, was one of a gang of five that held the family hostage before moving them to a shed.

The couple were threatened and tied up, and in the morning Mr Nawn was ordered to drive to work in An Post in Drogheda.

Mr Heneghan said that Mr Nawn met his boss and told him his partner and child were being told they would be shot.

He was instructed to get whatever cash was in the post office.

The raiders spoke to Mr Nawn’s boss and Ms Matthews was instructed to call him and tell him a gun was being held to her head.

The post office was in receipt of a cash delivery that day, and Mr Nawn was instructed to take the cash to a specific location, Mr Heneghan said. Mr Nawn’s boss was told not to do anything for 30 minutes after Mr Nawn left. Ms Matthews, who had been taken to a shed in a remote location with her baby and tied to an old bed, managed to free herself and raise the alarm.

The trial, which is expected to last four weeks, continues before Judge Elma Sheahan and a jury.