Andrew Carey
HAVING been told they faced being killed if a €500,000 ransom was not paid, the son of a Limerick postmistress has told a court of how he made a bolt from his captors through fields and over ditches in his bare socks.
Stephen Cusack and his friend Niall Reddan both told a jury in the trial of Zachary Coughlan Ryan that they were abducted from a house in Castletroy at gunpoint where the sole objective of the kidnap gang was to get money.
The 19-year-old told a trial at Limerick Circuit Court that he picked out a man in an identity parade at Henry Street garda station as being one of the three men who abducted him.
Zachary Coughlan Ryan, 34, of Brennan’s Row, Catherine Place, Limerick has pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Mr Cusack and Niall Reddan at a house in Caisleann na hAbhainn estate, Castletroy on the night of April 19,2012 and in to the early hours of the following day.
In his evidence, Mr Reddan said that he was taken, gagged and put in a pickup truck with his friend. When transferred to the cab area just before his release, Mr Reddan was told he would be killed if he looked at the faces of kidnappers.
When he was released near a field and County Limerick, Mr Reddan was given the instruction to tell the parents of his friend to get €500,000 or he would be killed.
During the sixth day of the trial, Mr Cusack recalled how he was gagged, punched and tied up and also bundled into the pickup.
When the truck pulled into a passageway, Mr Cusack said he “got a fair look” at one his abductors who had pulled the cover off his face. This happened he said, because the reverse lights illuminated the area and he could see what was happening.
Mr Cusack said: “I got a fair good look at him, straight in the eye.”.
During the ordeal, told the jury that one of the men claimed they were from the Continuity IRA and another of the three said: “Will we knee cap them.”.
After releasing Niall Reddan, the gang brought Stephen Cusack towards Donoughmore. and held him in a field for some time during the night. Stephen Cusack said it was the youngest of the three, armed with two knives, that stayed and held him captive while the other two left in the truck.
However, Stephen Cusack made a run for it through two fields, a hedge, an electric fence, before getting over a wall, while his captor was out of view.
He could see Donoughmore church and knew where he was. He went to a house, and told a person what happened, but was told go away.
The alert was raised after the residents at a second house rang the gardai.
Judge Carroll Moran heard details of phone traffic on one of Mr Cusack’s phones after the incident and on another phone number in the following days.
He said that after being asked to view an identity parade, Stephen Cusack said he picked out one of his abductors from the line up.
The trial continues.
