A van allegedly used in the abduction and assault of businessman Kevin Lunney was left unlocked on a Dublin street where a member of the National Surveillance Unit entered it to plant a device, the special Criminal Court has heard.
Two members of the NSU gave evidence today after the court made orders that their identities or any description of them should not be published.
Detective Superintendent Ciaran Hoey told the court that their identities needed to be protected out of concern for the lives and wellbeing of the officers and to safeguard future undercover garda operations.
The first NSU member told Mr Guerin that on October 21, 2019, more than one month after Mr Lunney was assaulted, he deployed a piece of technical equipment inside a Renault Kangoo van with a UK registration ending in PXU.
The van was parked, unlocked on Merchant's Road in the East Wall area of Dublin, the detective said.
The prosecution alleges that Mr Lunney's abductors used the van to drive from Dublin to Cavan and back to Dublin on the day Mr Lunney was assaulted.
The trial has also heard that DNA matching Mr Lunney's was found on the inside of the van's sliding door and DNA matching the accused man Darren Redmond was found on a bar behind the front seats.
Under cross-examination the detective agreed with Michael O'Higgins SC, for the accused known as YZ, that the vehicle was "open and could have been accessed by anybody."
The detective's colleague told Mr Guerin that he retrieved the equipment from the van on October 23 after it had been seized by gardai and was being held in a storage area at the forensic examination centre in Santry.
Mr O'Higgins told the three-judge, non-jury court that the defence intends to raise a legal issue regarding the van today.
