A JURY has failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a man accused of plotting to steal from a cash-in-transit van in Kildare 4½ years ago.
Joseph Warren (30), of Belclare Crescent, Ballymun, Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to conspiring to steal cash from Chubb Ireland at the Tesco supermarket on the Shackleton Road, Celbridge, on November 2nd, 2007.
It was day 17 of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The jury asked to hear the evidence of Det Supt Dominic Hayes and crime journalist Paul Williams again before the foreman told Judge Tony Hunt they were not able to reach a verdict on which 10 or more of them could agree.
The jury of seven women and five men had spent seven hours over three days considering the verdict.
Warren claimed during the trial that he was under duress from the late Eamon Dunne to get involved in the raid.
He said he got a Skoda Octavia from Dunne “on tick”, and when he was slow to pay back the debt Dunne told him he had no option but to get involved in this raid.
Warren claimed Dunne told him he would “be on top of Marlo” and “seeing God” if he did not do as instructed.
He said he knew at that time that Dunne was a gangster and “a very, very serious man”. He said it was in the papers that Dunne had killed another criminal, Martin “Marlo” Hyland.
“I was frightened. I was told there was no way out of this. He lay down the law. It’s either his way or the highway. That’s how he operated,” Warren told the jury.
During the trial, Paul Williams gave evidence that Willie Hynes and John Mangan were allegedly responsible for the double murder of Marlo Hyland and innocent plumber Anthony Campbell, and that Dunne had acted as the getaway driver.
Judge Hunt thanked the jury members for their “honest and conscientious” approach to the trial, before discharging them and excusing them from service for life. He remanded Warren on continuing bail to a date next week when it is expected a date for retrial will be set.