Maze prison escaper Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane went on trial at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today for the 1983 kidnapping of supermarket boss Don Tidey, which resulted in the death of a trainee garda and soldier during the rescue operation.
Mc Farlane (56),a father of three, of Jamaica St in Belfast was arrested outside Dundalk and charged in January 1998.
He pleaded not guilty today to falsely imprisoning Donald James Tidey on dates unknown between November 24th and December 16th, 1983.
He also denied possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life at Derrada Wood, Drumcronan, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim between November 25th and December 16th, 1983 and possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose between the same dates.
Opening the prosecution case, Edward Comyn SC said that Mr Tidey was a well known businessman who was kidnapped by a group of armed men on November 24th,1983 and kept for three weeks at Derrada Wood.
He said that a trainee garda and a member of the Army were killed when Mr Tidey was rescued by the security forces. He said that apart from the accused no other person has been charged in relation to the kidnap or the shooting dead of the garda and soldier.
Mr Comyn said that Mr Tidey left his home at Woodtown near Ballyboden in south Dublin at 7.50am with his daughter Susan whom he was dropping at school before going to work. His son Alastair was driving in his own car behind him.
Mr Tidey noticed a car with flashing light that looked like a garda car pulled across the exit of the laneway and a man dressed as a garda waving him down. There was also another man standing nearby who was also dressed as a garda.
This man came over and asked his name and then pulled a handgun from inside his jacket and told him to get out of the car. The man kept the handgun trained on Mr Tidey and he was forced to get into the car with the flashing light.
“He was forced into the rear with considerable pain and discomfort and he was made to lie down,” counsel said. Mr Tidey noticed there were three kidnappers in the car. His daughter Susan was pulled from his car and pressed against a fence by a man with a machine gun. Three other men appeared on the scene and one of them fired two bursts of shots.
The car containing Mr Tidey then sped off at high speed while Mr Tidey’s own car was also driven off by one of the hooded men. Susan and Alastair ran to a nearby house to alert the gardai.
Mr Tidey was unaware of a collision between the car he was in and another car. At some stage Mr Tidey was taken out of the car and put in a van.
“He received several blows and a hood was put over his head,” counsel added.
The van was driven off at high speed and when it stopped Mr Tidey was interrogated closely, his diary was taken and he was told he had been kidnapped.
“He was told that a ransom would be demanded and that his own life would be in his own hands,” counsel added.
He was put back in the van and after a journey of 45 minutes to an hour he was taken from the van and lead chained to a person on a cross country journey. The destination was a hideout which had been prepared in advance.
Mr Tidey’s legs were chained, his hands were manacled and his hood was removed and replaced with a blindfold.
He had a daily regime while in captivity which was given to him by the kidnappers. Mr Comyn said that Mr Tidey would give evidence that he was to follow a routine if there was risk of the hideout being discovered.
He would tell the court that he heard the security forces near the hideout and they were approaching closer all the time. He would say that the situation “became a blur of activity with a lot of firing”.
“A battle started to rage around him. He heard a violent explosion and he threw himself to the ground,” Mr Comyn said.
He managed to get into a slight depression in the ground and then he saw a soldier with an automatic weapon trained on him standing over him. Mr Tidey was wearing camouflage clothing and he wasn’t easily identified.
Mr Comyn said the court would hear that the search parties advanced in two groups through thick undergrowth. The evidence would be that the kidnappers took hostages and managed to escape through the back of the woods. They used a blue Opel Kadett car and when they approached gardai they opened fire and a detective was wounded. The kidnappers escaped through fields and gardai were not able to find them.
The kidnappers took Army weapons from the hostages they took and some of these were later recovered.
Mr Comyn said that Mr Tidey was kidnapped by a group that was well organised, tightly knit and who were armed with a variety of weapons and prepared to use the weapons to threaten Mr Tidey and to fire on the security forces.
He said the prosecution case is that Mc Farlane was “part and parcel “of of the group that kidnapped Mr Tidey and he acted in concert with the group in a common design.
He said there were two pieces of evidence against Mc Farlane - his fingerprints were found on a milk carton, plastic container and cooking pot found at the hideout and certain things he said to gardai after his arrest and detention in 1998.
Mc Farlane was the OC (officer commanding) of the Provisional IRA prisoners at the Maze prison at the time of the hunger strike in 1981 and escaped in the mass break out by 38 prisoners from the jail in September, 1983. He was later arrested in Amsterdam in January 1986, extradited to Northern Ireland and released on parole from the Maze in 1997. He was arrested by gardai outside Dundalk in January , 1998 as he travelled back to Belfast from Dublin following a trip to Copenhagen.
Supermarket executive Don Tidey, who was employed by Associated British Foods, was kidnapped by an IRA gang in 1983 and rescued after 23 days in captivity.
A trainee garda, Gary Sheehan,(23) of Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan and a member of the Defence Forces, Private Patrick Kelly,(35), from Moate, Co Westmeath were killed in a shoot out with the kidnap gang when Mr Tidey was rescued.