A FORENSIC VIDEO analyst has said he cannot rule out that Securicor CCTV recording was paused for three minutes on the day of a €2.28 million cash-in-transit robbery.

Feargal Ó Lideadha of Forensic Video Ireland revealed he had “no idea” why there was a gap in Securicor CCTV recording between 5.26am and 5.29am on 14 March 2005.

He agreed he couldn’t rule out that somebody had pressed pause on the recording, when this was put to him by Feargal Kavanagh SC, defending former Securicor worker Niall Byrne (36).

Niall Byrne, Mark Farrelly (46), Christopher Corcoran (70) and David Byrne (45) have all pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to the false imprisonment of four members of the Richardson family at their home at Ashcroft, Raheny, Dublin, on 13 and 14 March 2005.

Niall Byrne of Crumlin Road Flats, Dublin, Mark Farrelly of Moatview Court, Priorswood, Coolock, Christopher Corcoran of Rosedale, Raheny, Dublin and David Byrne of Old Brazil Way, Knocksedan, Swords, also pleaded not guilty to robbing Paul Richardson and Securicor of €2.28 million on 14 March 2005.

Expert witness

Ó Lideadha, who was called as an expert witness, said he viewed Securicor CCTV footage to check for anomalies in camera angles between 11 and 15 March 2005.

The witness said some of the fixed position Securicor cameras had panned away to other angles on a number of occasions during this period.

He said gardaí in the case assisted him in viewing a copy of the footage on USB and on the machine that stored the original data.

Ó Lideadha told Kavanagh that he believed best practice guidelines in preserving digital evidence had not been followed as there had been no audit trail for him to work off.

He explained that he had no records of who had extracted or made copies of the CCTV data and said there was no written explanation of why the footage had stopped for the few minutes.

Ó Lideadha told Maddie Grant BL, prosecuting, that he could not say what happened with the recording when she suggested it might have likely been a system blip followed by a reboot.

The witness accepted that the recording continued after the few minutes gap, but told Grant that “it would have been helpful” if somebody had noted a potential malfunction.

The trial continues before Judge Melanie Greally and an enlarged jury of seven women and seven men.

One juror was discharged earlier yesterday as pre-booked holiday plans clashed with the trial, which began in January.