An "IRA punishment beating" was nipped in the bud" after British soldiers saw a man being bundled into a taxi in west Belfast last week, the High Court was told yesterday. The claim was made by a prosecution lawyer opposing a bail application by the taxi-driver, Mr Dominic Hyland (28), who is accused with three others of conspiring to injure the man.
The prosecuting lawyer said that the man told police he had been abducted at gunpoint from the Laurel Leaf bar on the Falls Road by men who said they were from the IRA. A replica pistol, gloves and a black hood were found inside the taxi, and two iron bars were found in the boot.
Mr Justice Higgins refused bail.
