Dunmurryfamily targetof kidnapand robbery

Detectives in Lisburn are liaising with the Garda over the tiger kidnapping which took place last Wednesday evening, August 18.

The victims, a 41 year old male employee of a cash and transit company, his partner and her 16-year-old son were having their dinner around 6pm at their home at Teeling Grove when two masked and armed men came in.

The mother and son were bundled into the back of a van and taken to Mullyash near Castleblayney. It is believed they were given food during their ordeal but spent much of the time with pillow cases over their heads and were held overnight.

The police say that the pair were left in no doubt that if they didn’t comply with the kidnappers demands, their lives would be in danger.

They were then locked in a shed and the kidnappers set fire to a van that they were using. The fire was spotted by someone in the area who contacted the police.

The woman and the teenager were found at 8.10pm on Thursday - 24 hours after the gang first entered their home.

Meanwhile the woman’s partner was ordered to go to work as normal, get money and meet at Muckamore outside Antrim.

The robbers made off with the substantial sum of cash believed to be in the region of around £200,000.

Police want to trace two vehicles used by the gang, a white van spotted at Teeling Grove on Wednesday, registration: HEZ 6069 and a brown/beige hatchback which was in the area of Muckamore Industrial Estate at around 5.20pm the following day.

Detective Chief Inspector Justyn Galloway said the family have been left traumatised by the ordeal.

He said they were left in no doubt “if they did not co-operate and comply with the instructions that their lives would be in danger”.

“We are dealing with a 16-year-old boy and two adults who have had their privacy invaded and the terrifying ordeal of being removed and kept at a location overnight,” he said.

The incident in Teeling Grove is the fourth such tiger kidnapping in Northern Ireland this year.

A 35 year old man arrested in Belfast in relation to the incident remains in custody.

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