A CASH-IN-TRANSIT driver whose family was held hostage during a raid six years ago has told a trial that he could not drive his van during the incident because he was crying so much.
David Byrne (39), Knocksedan, Swords, Co Dublin, and Niall Byrne (29), Crumlin Road Flats, Crumlin Road, Dublin, have both pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to falsely imprisoning the Richardson family at Ashcroft, Raheny, Dublin, on March 13th and 14th, 2005, and to one count of robbery.
They have also pleaded not guilty to robbing Mr Richardson and Securicor of €2,280,000 on the same date.
Both men are alleged to have been members of a gang that held Mr Richardson, a Securicor worker, and his family hostage as part of a raid in March 2005.
The trial has already heard that while Ms Richardson and her sons were being held overnight in the Dublin Mountains, Mr Richardson was told to go to work as normal and collect a van “loaded with cash”.
After dropping off the cash, Mr Richardson had been told to continue driving west out of the city until he got a phone call to say his family had been freed.
On the third day of the trial, Mr Richardson told Feargal Kavanagh SC, for Niall Byrne, that he had to stop the van before he had heard from the kidnappers because he could not see the road.
He said: “There were so many tears in my eyes I couldn’t see the road properly.
“I became very unwell with pains in my chest. I stopped the van. I couldn’t go any further.”
The court heard that Mr Richardson had pulled the van over on the N4 near Kinnegad and at this point his colleagues insisted on raising the alarm.
Richard Lynch, a consultant in emergency medicine with the Midlands Regional Hospital, gave evidence of treating Mr Richardson and said he was in “a state of severe shock”.
He agreed with Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting, that the victim was “frightened that his captors might come after him” in the hospital.
“I’ve never met anyone who’s been so frightened in all my life,” Mr Lynch said.
In other evidence, Mr Richardson said gardaí did not allow him and his family to return to his home for a fortnight after the kidnapping.
He said: “I was kept in a safe spot for two weeks. We moved from one place to another.
“We were all questioned. Gardaí told us that everyone is a suspect.”
The trial continues before Judge Patrick McCartan and a jury of seven men and five women.