THE FINANCIAL adviser who denies 20 counts of money- laundering more than £3 million has told a jury that he was coerced by gardaí into naming former Bank of Scotland (Ireland) chairman Phil Flynn as being behind the Northern Bank raid.
Ted Cunningham told Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday that gardaí had told him before interview on video that if he did not co-operate and say what they wanted him to say, they would leak it to the press that he had named names and that the IRA would kill him.
Mr Cunningham said he had been arrested on February 17th, 2005, on suspicion of IRA membership, which was “crazy” and “absurd”. He was interviewed all that day but the next morning, he was put under severe duress and advised to say what gardaí wanted him to say.
He said he met Chief Supt Tony Quilter who told him that he could either work with or against them and that he “was in deep shit” if he did not co-operate with them. He said they had a photo of him with Phil Flynn and IRA people at a farm at Ravensdale, Co Louth.
He said Chief Supt Quilter told him in the Bridewell Garda station that gardaí knew that it was the IRA who robbed the Northern Bank and that Mr Flynn had an involvement and that he was part of an IRA cell. He denied that to them.
“The whole thing was that I was acting for or on behalf of the IRA . . . It was said to me that I was the pawn and that Phil Flynn was the main man, if I was to name Phil Flynn as the person behind it – he said they knew all this and they basically only wanted me to rubberstamp it.
“I knew myself I had no names to give because I was never in the IRA,” said Mr Cunningham, adding that he was very concerned about his wife, Cathy Armstrong, who had also been arrested with him on suspicion of IRA membership and was also being questioned.
“I told them I wasn’t in the IRA. At that stage, I had given up – I just wanted to get Cathy out – I didn’t care what I said. It wasn’t chit-chat, there was banging on tables – at that stage if they told me Mother Teresa was my sister, I would have agreed with them.”
Mr Cunningham said he was exhausted as he had not slept for some 60 hours since he left home at about 4am on February 16th. He was also exhausted as a result of a hereditary blood condition which left him weak after suffering severe nosebleeds.
“In all of this, what was going through my mind, I could see myself signing stuff like the McBreartys had to do above and they kicked the shit out of them. I lived with this for four years – I blanked a lot of it out of my mind to keep myself sane.”
Mr Cunningham said that he was not alleging that he was assaulted or physically injured but the duress that he was put under during interview was intolerable.
“I would have been better off in Guantànamo Bay with the Americans, it was as bad if not worse . . .
“I was out of my tree, I had given up. I tried to tell the truth about where I got the money from Bulgaria. If they had asked me if I had met Bin Laden I would have said I met him in Farran two years ago and done my best to describe him.”
