THE TRIAL of two men accused of taking part in a €2.28 million kidnapping and robbery has heard evidence of dozens of phone calls allegedly made by the raiders during the incident.
David Byrne (39), Knocksedan, Swords, Co Dublin, and Niall Byrne (29), Crumlin Road, Dublin, have pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to falsely imprisoning the Richardson family at Ashcroft, Raheny, Dublin, on March 13th and 14th, 2005. They have also pleaded not guilty to robbing Paul Richardson and Securicor of €2,280,000.
Garda Det Insp Martin Mooney told Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting, that he compiled the records using call trace data from mobile service providers. Using this information, he was able to draw up charts showing the times, duration and general location of the calls.
He produced charts showing dozens of calls made between certain numbers during the course of the robbery. He said there were frequent calls between a small group of numbers, most of them lasting well under a minute.
He said each phone call had to be routed through a particular mobile phone mast and whichever mast was used showed the general area of the caller.
The records show several of the callers moving location rapidly and frequently through the night and early morning. Locations included Raheny, Malahide Road, Baldoyle, Coolock and Chapelizod.
The court heard that the nine telephone numbers relevant to the investigation were drawn up after the investigation team initially analysed mobile phone traffic made between the Raheny area and the Dublin mountains, where Mr Richardson’s wife and two teenage sons were held in a car overnight.
Det Garda Insp Mooney told Mr McGinn the chart did not include every call from each mobile number made during the time period but only “relevant data”.
James O’Gorman from O2 Ireland told Fergal Kavanagh SC, defending Niall Byrne, that all call data in his company’s records was “accurate” but that some call data might not be captured.
It was day nine of the trial, which continues before Judge Patrick McCartan and a jury.