A Co. Armagh alleged IRA terrorist who on Monday went on trial accused of a postman’s murder more than 25 years ago can be connected to the “well planned and professional robbery” after new forensic techniques uncovered his DNA profile.
Opening the Crown case against James Seamus Fox, prosecuting KC Samuel Magee, said that taking the strands of the circumstantial case together, there is an “irresistible inference” the 64-year-old was a “willing and active participant” during the robbery at Newry sorting office which resulted in the tragic murder of Frank Kerr.
Those strands, the senior barrister told the Diplock, no jury trial at Craigavon Crown Court, included Fox’s DNA profile being uncovered on a Royal Mail cap and trousers, stained with the victim’s blood.
Mr Magee told trial judge Mr Justice Fowler how those items had been recovered in the back of a Renault 19 car which had been stopped by police 45 minutes after the robbery and where the two occupants, Declan McComish and Kevin Donegan, were later convicted and jailed for offences of assisting offenders.
Fox, from the Carewamean Road in Jonesborough, is charged with the murder of Newry postman Frank Kerr, robbing Royal Mail of £131,000, possessing a pistol, a revolver and ammunition with intent to endanger life and with membership of a proscribed organisation, namely the IRA, all alleged to have been committed on November 10, 1994.
Outlining the background to the offences, Mr Magee told the court that just after 9am that morning there had been a cash delivery of £234,000 at Newry sorting office but that around 20 minutes later, a Royal Mail van arrived.
The driver told the security hut “priority services Belfast,” a phrase which was “recognised parlance” used by post office staff who were in a hurry.
When the inner gate was opened, the employee in the security gate was confronted by an armed man dressed in a Royal Mail uniform who forced him to the floor and tied his hands with cable ties.
That man and three other men, at least two of whom were carrying loaded guns, entered into the sorting office and forced staff to kneel between two vans in the yard outside.
The supervisor was marched to Mr Kerr’s cash office and when he was told it was a robbery, he demanded to know “are you f****** joking” before he grabbed the gunman by the arms.
Mr Magee told the court the gunman fired but he missed and the court heard how one of the other accomplices shouted “shoot him” before another shot rang out and the victim fell to the ground, “blood pumping out of his right ear, left ear, mouth and nose.”
Fleeing the scene with £131,000, the robbers demanded the override key for the inner and outer gates but they also left a sledgehammer behind.
The senior barrister said that around 45 minutes later, close to the entrance of Killeavy Castle, two RUC officers came across a Renault 19 car and when the occupants were challenged, one man ran away but McComish and Donegan were arrested.
A search of the vehicle uncovered a Royal Mail uniform of anorak, trousers and a cap and the court heard how they were subject to forensic tests at the time but apart from the victims blood being found on the trousers, the results were negative.
In 2019 however, the exhibits were examined again and it was on foot of those results which lead to charges being levied against Fox.
Mr Magee described how fibres found on the sledgehammer at the scene were found to match fibres in the Royal Mail cap and that in turn, several hairs potentially attributable to Fox were found in the lining of the seized cap.
At the initial investigation, forensic scientists took tape lifts from the cop to establish whether fibres could have been transferred to the sledge hammer at the robbery scene but the barrister told Mr Justice Fowler that minute amounts of cellular material was found on those tape lifts.
Scientists were able to extract a DNA profile from that material and the judge heard the chances of it coming from someone other than Fox is one in a billion.
Describing the robbery as a “well-planned operation” which must have had “inside information,” Mr Magee submitted that the prosecution did not need to prove what role was allegedly played by Fox and added that in any event, the men were wearing disguises such as glasses and fake tan so any identification may not be sound.
It is the prosecution case however, said the senior KC, that Fox was a “willing and active participant” in the joint enterprise where given the fact that at least two loaded guns were used the gang must have anticipated that potential violence could be used.
Indeed, names were taken and staff members were threatened that they would be shot if they interfered or hampered the gang’s escape, the court heard.
He submitted that given the scientific findings, there is an “irresistible inference” that Fox was one of the gang who carried out the robbery and murder.
That inference was bolstered, he further submitted, by Fox’s association to the two men who were jailed for assisting offenders, revealing the defendant had visited them in prison.
The trial, set to last up to three weeks, continues.
At hearing.
