House raid accused go free

Published Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Four men accused of having a gun and trying to raid a house walked free on Wednesday after their lawyers argued at least one of them had to be innocent.

The men walked free on account of insufficient evidence against them. (© UTV)

A judge at Belfast Magistrates' Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to connect the suspects to charges linked to an incident at a house just outside the north of the city.

Newtownabbey men Ryan Neil Hagan, 27, of Cherrymount; Darren James McKee, 27, and David Carson Allen, 24 - both from Forthill Drive - appeared in the dock alongside Andrew David Boyd, 27, of Glenfield Road in Lurgan.

All four had been charged with having a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, possession of the weapon in suspicious circumstances, and attempted aggravated burglary.

They were arrested when police stopped a car in west Belfast hours after an alleged attempted raid on a house on the Doagh Road, Newtownabbey on Tuesday morning.

At their first court appearance defence lawyers argued that they could not be connected to the case because the alleged victim claimed only three men were involved.

Mr Hagan's solicitor, Seamus Leonard, said at least one of the four in the dock must therefore be innocent.

Mr Leonard challenged the strength of the prosecution case and contended that there was insufficient evidence to connect his client to the charges.

District Judge Fiona Bagnall backed his assessment and refused to remand any of the accused.

All four men were then discharged from the custody of the court.

Comments

2 Comments

stephanie in newtownabbey wrote (219 days ago):

This is only part TRUE. I personally was in the court room during this trail, there was not one single piece of evidence to link these four men to this crime, the judge herself gave a small laugh when she continuously asked what evidence the police had and he constantly said 'none' there was no fire arm found on any of them as previously reported and the description given to the police by the man who owned the house didn't match any of the men. the solicitors of the men asked the police officer directly did the description match any of the men in the dock and he answered 'no', so maybe you should of wrote the whole story.

Mark in Belfast wrote (219 days ago):

Ah another fine job done by the courts.....