Three of the men charged with kidnapping and causing serious harm to the Quinn Industrial Holdings director Kevin Lunney were "directly physically involved" in the attack, while the fourth helped with the planning and execution of the crime, the Special Criminal Court heard today.
Prosecuting Counsel Sean Guerin also told the court that they were acting on the instructions of Cyril McGuinness, who was also known as "Dublin Jimmy", who died in the UK during a police raid at his home there in 2019.
Luke O'Reilly, 67, from Mullahoran Lower, Kilcogy in Co Cavan, Darren Redmond, 27, from Caledon Road in East Wall in Dublin and 40-year-old Alan O'Brien of Shelmalier Road also in East Wall, as well as the fourth man who cannot be named for legal reasons, all pleaded not guilty this morning.
The court was also told that the attack on Mr Lunney was linked to his position at Quinn Industrial Holdings, and that he was repeatedly told to resign or he would be killed.
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Mr Guerin said in his opening statement today that the attack on Mr Lunney was done in connection with the affairs of QIH, his role as a director and some litigation he was involved in.
He said three of the men, Mr O'Brien, Mr Redmond and another man identified as YZ, were directly and physically involved in the attack on Mr Lunney, while Mr O'Reilly helped in the planning and execution.
Mr Lunney, he said, arrived home from work to Derrylin in Co Fermanagh and was driving up a laneway at 6.30pm on 17 September 2019 when he saw a car parked in front of him and stopped.
The car reversed into his vehicle at speed and two men in balaclavas got out, overpowered him and took him from his car but "not without a struggle".
A third man arrived in a black car, a Stanley knife was held to Mr Lunney's neck and he was threatened that he would be killed, before being bundled into the boot and driven away.
At one stage, the court heard, he managed to open the boot but could not get out because of the speed of the car.
The car was stopped, he was hit with a wooden instrument, pushed back in and the journey continued.
Mr Guerin said the driver in the car appeared to be on the phone to someone and said "Boss, this guy resisted and we had to hit him".
Mr Lunney was repeatedly threatened, asked if he had any tracking devices and told he would be killed.
He was then taken from the car and led between two containers, into what he thought was a blue container with a steel floor.
Mr Lunney was told he was there because of Quinn Industrial Holdings and told that he and other named directors had to resign.
He was told to stop all court cases north and south, Mr Guerin said, and that he had been watched for six weeks. Comments were also made about his children.
Mr Lunney told them he would do whatever they wanted if they did not kill him and Mr Guerin said they told him they would not, but that if he did not do what they said, then they would kill him.
Mr Guerin said that one of the men then said "we have a problem with the DNA".
A Stanley knife was then used to scrape under Mr Lunney’s fingernails, but others insisted they needed bleach.
Mr Lunney’s hands were tied with cable ties and two men left. Mr Lunney then heard a car starting and thinks he was left with one man for about 15 minutes.
He was kneeling on the floor in animal dung in "some considerable discomfort", the court heard.
The court heard a thick liquid was then poured over his hands, his clothes were removed, bleach was poured over his body and he was given a cloth and told to "rub hard".
It was also squirted on his face underneath his face covering. He was again told to resign and tell the other directors to resign.
The court then heard that Mr Lunney was told he would be let go, but had to be "roughed up" first. He was hit twice on the leg with a blunt instrument and felt "real pain" with the breaking of a bone in the leg.
After the first blow, he heard someone ask "did it snap?" The reply was "it didn’t" so he was hit a second time and then repeatedly approximately 20 times on the ground.
The court then heard he was told "we have to mark you", his face was cut on both sides and his chest was "scored with a knife." A man was heard to say the letters Q, I and H as if carving it into Mr Lunney’s chest, the court heard.
After approximately 40 minutes, he was brought to a van and he was told to confirm he would resign and told to make no statement to gardaí.
The court heard that if they heard of a statement to the gardaí "about a gang of Dubs" they would be back.
Mr Lunney was then left on the side of the road and his face cover was removed as he faced a ditch. He struggled on the road in great pain, until he was seen by a driver between 8.45pm and 9pm.
The court was also told that the purchase of the bleach was "a significant factor" as a canvas of CCTV established a bottle had been bought at a Gala shop in Killidoo in Cavan that night.
Mr Guerin said Mr O'Reilly was captured on CCTV buying the bleach in a white Mitsubishi Outlander.
When the gardaí arrived at his home three days later, he arrived in a similar jeep and Mr Guerin said he told them "I know why you’re here, because I bought a bottle of bleach"
Phone data also identified calls between McGuinness and Mr O’Reilly before and after the bleach was bought.
Call data also linked a call from YZ to McGuinness and that YZ had called McGuinness during the attack.
Prosecuting counsel also told the court gardaí identified a location in Dublin which one of the men, YZ, visited on the day before the attack on Mr Lunney.
CCTV footage showed YZ at the Island Key apartment complex, meeting another of the accused Alan O'Brien and leaving the complex in a UK registered Renault Kagoo.
The prosecution says this car was imported into Ireland by Cyril McGuinness and Darren Redmond also travelled with YZ and Alan O'Brien in that car on the day of the attack because Darren Redmond's DNA was found in it.
Blood stains in the car also matched Kevin Lunney’s profile but the prosecution does not say he was in that car.
Mr Guerin said the presence of his blood staining is powerful evidence to connect the people who travelled in that car to the attack on Kevin Lunney.
It can be understood, he said, that any person involved in the attack could have carried Mr Lunney’s blood stains and transferred them to the Renault Kangoo.
The Audi, which was used to abduct Mr Lunney, has not been recovered but Mr Guerin said YZ is connected to that car through possession of an e-flow tag.
Gardaí, he said, also discovered a blue horse box which was swabbed and found to have Mr Lunney’s blood stains. The box, he said, was found in a yard on land registered to Luke O’Reilly.
Mr Guerin said this was a complex circumstantial case with over 250 witnesses involving CCTV, DNA, movement patterns and call data evidence.
He said the three men directly involved in the attack, Alan O' Brien, Darren Redmond and YZ were acting on the instructions of Cyril McGuinness and that Mr McGuinness was the connection between them and Luke O’Reilly.
Technical and mapping evidence was heard this afternoon.
The case will resume tomorrow morning when Mr Lunney is expected to give evidence.
