The man cleared of one of Britain's largest bank robberies may launch legal action after branding his failed prosecution a farce.
The man cleared of one of Britain's largest bank robberies may launch legal action after branding his failed prosecution a farce.
Police and prosecutors were accused of overseeing a fiasco after Chris Ward, 26, walked free yesterday, almost four years after the £26.5m Northern Bank robbery in Belfast.
The bank employee's family was held hostage in December 2004 while he was forced to go to the vaults and load huge sums of cash into the bandits' van.
The political fall-out from the robbery even threatened to undermine the Northern Ireland peace process.
The collapse of the allegations against Mr Ward make it the third major case where police have failed to secure convictions following unsuccessful prosecutions over the Omagh bombing and the murder of Robert McCartney.
Mr Ward was acquitted after Belfast Crown Court Judge Mr Justice Richard McLaughlin dubbed a central pillar of the indictment "coincidence and chance".
Afterwards, Mr Ward's solicitor Niall Murphy said Mr Ward had been rescued from an appalling miscarriage of justice.
He said the "Kafkaesque farce", which temporarily derailed Northern Ireland's political process, started from the premise that Mr Ward was guilty and worked back.
"From the outset Chris Ward was denied the presumption of innocence," he added.
"It is a regrettable fact that in this society, the mere fact that Chris Ward was a Catholic from Poleglass and charged with this offence was enough to seal his guilt in the eyes of some people."
Asked about possible legal action, Mr Murphy said: "We are going to reflect upon the comments of the judge and make an informed decision."
Police blamed the IRA for the robbery, but Sinn Fein have rebutted the claim.
Mr Ward, from Colinmill, Poleglass, on the edge of west Belfast, denied from the outset robbing the Belfast bank and abducting colleague Kevin McMullan and his wife Kyran McMullan.
The trial, which started on September 9, heard that the families of Mr Ward and Mr McMullan were held hostage in their homes in west Belfast and County Down, while the key-holders for the bank's vaults went to work the next day on December 20, 2004.
They handed over the money to the robbers, terrified for the lives of their families.
Mr Justice McLaughlin heard the prosecution's case was based on circumstantial evidence concerning the defendant's alleged role in altering a staff rota on the day of the robbery.
Evidence given during the trial, indicating that other named employees had been central to the rota changes, prompted a rethink by Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Alasdair Fraser.
The judge said: "Given the decision to present no further evidence, I could not arrive at any other verdict and I conclude that Chris Ward is not guilty of the three counts in front of me."
A spokesman for the Northern Bank said: "It is disappointing that such a major crime remains unsolved. All those caught up in the robbery were traumatised by what happened."
