THE ONLY man accused of robbing the Northern Bank in 2004 of some £26.5 million (€33.56 million) has walked free after the case against him collapsed.
Christopher Ward (26), from Colinmill, Poleglass, in west Belfast, was found not guilty yesterday of three counts of false imprisonment and robbery after the prosecution offered no further evidence against him.
Two families, including Mr Ward's, were held hostage while he and another bank colleague were forced to take part in the theft of the cash.
A vital element of the case against him was that he somehow facilitated a late change to the staff roster to ensure he could assist in what was the largest cash robbery in either Britain or Ireland at the time.
However, it emerged after one month of the expected three-month trial that others also could have known who held keys to the storage facility where millions were stored. The bank headquarters held many millions in cash after the last weekend before Christmas, one of the busiest trading times of the year.
Gordon Kerr QC, prosecuting, told the non-jury court that the case against Mr Ward, who was dismissed by the bank, was based on circumstantial evidence.
"An essential strand related to the circumstances in which the defendant came to be on the rota of the late shift of the Northern Bank on the day of the robbery," he told Mr Justice McLaughlin.
"[It was] fundamental in the case to the prosecution inviting the court to draw inference from other parts of the case."
He added that differences had arisen during the trial around the roster which prompted the rethink. "Having considered the remaining evidence and the advice of counsel . . . it has been concluded that it would not be proper to make further submissions."
The judge responded: "I consider the decision of the Director for Public Prosecutions to be fully justified and proper. Given the decision to present no further evidence, I could not arrive at any other verdict, and I conclude that Chris Ward is not guilty of the three counts in front of me."
Mr Ward did not speak during the short sitting of the court, but looked emotional as friends and members of his family hugged each other in the public gallery behind the dock.
A short time later he stepped outside to face reporters, accompanied by his solicitor Niall Murphy, who spoke on his behalf.
The distress of the Ward family following the kidnapping and robbery was compounded by the arrest and detention of Mr Ward who was held for "the longest period of any individual ever held in police custody in this jurisdiction".
Mr Murphy added that the acquittal, which came with some two months of evidence still to be heard, illustrated "the flawed approach of this investigation".
"The defence were obstructed by the failure of the Public Prosecution Service from the beginning to provide full and proper disclosure of information and material in their possession which undermined their case and supported in detail the account Chris gave at the outset," he added.
There should be a thorough analysis of how some high-profile cases were prosecuted, he said.
"The PSNI investigation into this case, possibly the largest ever in the UK, was not conditioned by the evidence, but was inspired by political motives," Mr Murphy alleged.
"The mere fact that Chris Ward was a Catholic from Poleglass and charged with this offence was enough to seal his guilt in the eyes of some people."
The police believe the IRA was responsible for the robbery, a claim Sinn Féin has denied.
Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey said: "This case was about trying to prove a political theory about who was responsible for this robbery. It was not about finding those who were responsible."