Kidnap victim 'held at gunpoint'

By Diarmaid Fleming
BBC NI Dublin correspondent

Brendan McFarlane is a former IRA leader and Maze prison escapee

An English businessman kidnapped in 1983 was held at gunpoint by an Irish soldier and a garda after a search party stumbled on the hideout where he was being held, a Dublin court has heard.

Don Tidey was giving evidence in the trial of Brendan McFarlane at the Special Criminal Court, who denies charges of unlawful imprisonment, possession of firearms and intent to endanger life in unlawful circumstances.

Mr McFarlane denies being part of a gang who held the former chairman of the Stewarts and Quinnsworth supermarket chains in Ireland.

The accused denies charges of possession of firearms, intent to endanger life and unlawful imprisonment.

Mr Tidey who is now aged in his early 70s, told the court he was driving his daughter Susan to school in November 1983 before driving to Belfast.

His son Alistair was following in another car close behind, when Mr Tidey said he stopped at what he thought was a garda checkpoint near his home in Rathfarnham.

A man dressed as a garda asked him who he was, and then ordered him from his car at gunpoint.

He was bundled into a car after a struggle, with his children left behind before they raised the alarm.

'Exercising technique'

The supermarket executive described how he was beaten and sat upon by members of the gang when he was kidnapped.

Hooded for almost all his ordeal, he was eventually taken to a wooded hideout in woods in County Leitrim.

Chained for most of the time, he told the court how he washed when his captors threw what he believed was "bog water" over him, and was fed tea, bread, jam and occasionally soup.

He said he had military training and was familiar with "isometrics" - an exercising technique to strengthen muscles, which he practised to keep fit so he could escape if the chance arose.

Mr Tidey said he did not communicate with his kidnappers, and was forced to pose for a photograph with a newspaper.

They had instructed him to walk behind a gang member if the group had to move suddenly, a field manoeuvring technique he said he was familiar with from his own military experience.

On 16 December, over three weeks after he went missing, Mr Tidey said he heard voices from what turned out to be a garda and Irish Army search party.

As the gang hurriedly prepared to move, without warning, a gun-battle erupted, in which a garda and an Irish soldier died. Mr Tidey also heard a grenade explosion which surprised him.

"There was a blast of gunfire and then more gunfire and from that moment it became a battleground," he said.

"Everyone (in the kidnap gang) made their own arrangements, including me. My arrangement was for me to hit the ground."

"I rolled down an incline, and took account of my circumstances," the businessman told the court.

"I looked up, and found myself looking into the muzzle of a weapon, close to my forehead," he said.

'Elite Task Force'

The gun was held by an Irish soldier, but because Mr Tidey was dressed in combat "field clothing" and was unshaven, the soldier did not believe who he was, and trained his automatic rifle on him.

He was marched across fields and lost his lower clothing when his boots got stuck in mud, ending up naked from the waist down and barefoot.

"By the grace of God and his mercy they didn't pull the trigger," he told the court.

After he was handed over to members of the garda elite Task Force, another detective "held a gun to my head to ascertain who I was," said Mr Tidey.

His ordeal was not over. In the panic after the shoot-out, the kidnap gang hijacked a car.

As police questioned Mr Tidey to determine his identity, the escaping kidnap gang sped past, shooting wildly with automatic fire and wounding a soldier.

He said he believed the gunmen were not firing at anyone in particular, but shooting "to scatter" to enable their escape.

Mr Tidey was not cross-examined by the defence.

The court also heard from Mr Tidey's daughter Susan, who he was leaving to school when he was kidnapped, and his son Alistair who was driving behind.

Both confirmed statements taken at the time of seeing their father struggling, and how they were left behind by the gang before raising the alarm.

Questioned by the defence, both confirmed that they believed at the time the men in the kidnap gang had accents from the south rather than the north of Ireland.

The trial continues.