The Northern Bank Robbery

I watched Dispatches last night on the Northern Bank Robbery in Belfast in December 2004. The programme was not great, it did not shed any light on the crime, did not reveal any additional facts and I felt it was pretty weak.

It is one thing for the police to have an idea of who carried out the crime but it is pointless if they have no evidence to back it up. The British criminal justice system is based upon well established rules that have developed over many years. One rule is that there must be enough evidence upon which to base a case. Ideal speculation and common threads among crimes would never stand up in court and I feel that expecting us to accept such flimsy evidence is a little patronising.

Until there is enough evidence to prove who is responsible for the crime, there is little point in speculating. I think that the IRA probably were responsible for the heist but the lack of prosecutions and the lack of action from the Criminal Assets Bureau show an alarming gap in intelligence.