A MAN WILL go on trial next year at the Special Criminal Court charged with his involvement in a 2013 credit union robbery, during which Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe was shot dead.

The non-jury court heard today that the trial could last up to four months.

Brendan ‘Benny’ Treanor (34) with an address at Emer Terrace, Castletown Road, Dundalk, Co Louth, appeared at the non-jury court this morning, who heard that there was also a co-accused in the case awaiting an extradition process in the UK.

Treanor is charged with two offences relating to the robbery at Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan in Co Louth on 23 January 2013.

Treanor is accused that he, along with others, ‘between 11 September 2012 and 23 January 2013, both dates inclusive and within the State, entered a residential premises as trespassers with the intention of stealing the keys of the householder’s motor vehicles’, contrary to Common Law.

Treanor is further charged with robbing Pat Bellew of approximately €7,000 in cash and assorted cheques at Lordship Credit Union on 23 January 2013.

The second alleged offence is contrary to Section 14 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001.

Today at the three-judge court, Treanor’s counsel, John Berry BL, said that the defence may make an application regarding the jurisdiction of the court in the case.

Berry said that two senior counsel had yet to be instructed in the case but that his application to the court was for a date for trial. Counsel said that the case could last up to four months.

Lorcan Staines SC, for the State, said that there was a co-accused male in custody in the UK and that an international warrant had been issued for his presence in Ireland for the trial.

Staines said that there was a “huge” amount of material in the case and asked for a 2022 trial date. Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, fixed 3 October 2022, as a date for trial and fixed 21 December 2021, as a date for mention for an update in progress.

In October of last year, Aaron Brady (30) of New Road, Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Detective Garda Donohoe, who was granted a State funeral in his honour. Brady’s trial was also the longest murder case in Irish legal history, lasting 122 court days.

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