Ex-IRA Chief's Trial Collapses After Ruling

The trial of a former IRA chief, Brendan 'Bic' McFarlane, on kidnap charges has collapsed since the Special Criminal Court ruled incriminating statements he allegedly made cannot be used in evidence.

McFarlane was accused of involvement in the violent abduction of supermarket boss Don Tidey in 1983, who was kidnapped outside his home in Dublin and then held captive for over three weeks in a wooded hideaway.

McFarlane, 56, from west Belfast, who led the mass escape from the Maze Prison weeks before the kidnap - and was known as 'Bic' in prison on account of his copious note-taking (using a Bic ballpoint pen) - walked free from Dublin's Special Criminal Court after the prosecution was forced to drop the case.

Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions told the court the state was not entering any further evidence.

McFarlane had a previous trial in 1998 dropped due to the loss of a number of exhibits containing fingerprints by garda, which were central to the case, but the Irish Supreme Court ruled in March 2006 that the trial could proceed.

Another attempt to overturn the ruling was made on the grounds that McFarlane could not get a fair trial due to "systematic delays in bringing the prosecution", however, the trail finally got underway despite further delays on June 11 of this year and has now officially collapsed.

(DW)