Courts

Postmistress sues An Post alleging flawed response to tiger kidnapping

Malahide native, daughter and Italian student abducted at gunpoint and driven around until €80,000 stolen from safe

All of the claims are denied and An Post contends the postmistress was not an employee but an independent contractor. Photograph Nick Bradshaw
Wed Jul 24 2024 - 19:07

A postmistress who was the victim of a tiger kidnapping, tied up and told she would be shot has sued An Post in the High Court.

Susan Lawlor from Malahide, who was the postmistress at Bayside Post Office, Dublin, was along with her daughter and an Italian student abducted from her home at gunpoint and driven around by her captors until the €80,000 contents of the post office safe were stolen in September, 2014.

Ms Lawlor’s senior counsel, Richard Kean, told the court his client upon hearing armed robbers in her home followed An Post protocol by phoning a hostage helpline which was meant to activate a covert response.

However, said counsel, while Ms Lawlor and the other two women were being driven around north Co Dublin in a car by the robbers, an An Post security officer rang her back and the robbers “went utterly ballistic”.

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Counsel said there was a big escalation in violence and Ms Lawlor was told by one robber: “I am going to shoot you in the f**king head.”

She later thought they could be burned alive in the car as an accelerant was poured over it and she pulled out some of her hair and spit on the car floor so she would leave her DNA sample, counsel said.

Counsel told the court that such kidnappings were rampant in the country at the time. He said she was “loyally following protocol” but her alleged “negligent treatment by An Post has caused her lifelong stress and anxiety”.

“Her life was in complete disorder afterwards. It ruined her life and it continues to cause her stress and fear,” counsel added.

He said an expert on their side will say that Ms Lawlor’s condition is attributable to the kidnapping and the phone call from an An Post worker that escalated aggression from the robbers.

He said Ms Lawlor will also say An Post would not initially pay for a hotel for her and the other two women caught up in the ordeal when they could not return home because it was a crime scene.

He said she will also say she felt under huge pressure and will allege she was “bullied to go back to work” two or three weeks after the event. An investigation report from An Post exonerated the company for adhering to protocol, noted the money was recovered and arrests were made. But there was no mention of the phone call to Ms Lawlor.

In her proceedings, Ms Lawlor (58) claims there was a failure to have regard to previous incidences of tiger kidnapping and a failure to follow the appropriate company protocols.

All of the claims are denied and An Post contends the postmistress was not an employee but an independent contractor.

Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds heard there are three similar actions against An Post arising out of the same set of events. She said the four actions should be heard together. She adjourned Ms Lawlor’s case until that can be done.