Four men are remanded in custody over Lunney case

THE four men charged in connection with the abduction and false imprisonment of Quinn Industrial Holdings director Kevin Lunney are to be served with the Book of Evidence before the end of the month.

The four, who have been held since November, were remanded in custody when they appeared before Judge Deirdre Gearty at Harristown District Court in Roscommon yesterday. Roscommon State solicitor Kieran Madigan applied for them to be held and to appear before Cavan District Court on March 26, for the serving of the Book of Evidence.

None of the men spoke during the brief hearing at Harristown District Court, which is adjacent to Castlerea Prison in Co. Roscommon. They were arrested in November in relation to the abduction in Cavan in September and have since been remanded in custody on a number of occasions.

Luke O’Reilly, 66, from Mullahoran Lower, Kilcogy, Co. Cavan; Darren Redmond, 25, from Caledon Road, East Wall, Dublin; and Alan O’Brien, 39, of Shelmalier Road, East Wall, were remanded in custody. The fourth man cannot be named for legal reasons.

Mr Madigan said provision might need to be made because of the coronavirus crisis but Judge Gearty said a ministerial order would probably be put in place if the courts were unable to sit.

Mr Madigan told a previous hearing that it was a very complex case with over 1,000 lines of inquiry, 400 statements, extensive CCTV footage and a large amount of phone data, while the State solicitor for Cavan, Rory Hayden, said that the file was the biggest he had seen in 25 years.