John Thomas Forrester was proven not guilty this week for his involvement in a crime that could have inspired thriller novelist Tom Clancy. In April 2009, bank manager Forrester, was the victim of a heist at the hands of ‘Irish revolutionaries.’

Forrester claims that in 2009 he was carjacked by Irish revolutionaries and forced to steal $40,000 from his bank in order to “fund their cause,” reports the Brisbane Times.

In addition, Forrester was injected with what he was told to be a poisonous substance in the back of his neck; he would only receive the antidote once he complied with the revolutionaries demands.
_________________
Read More:

A stolen iPhone on a Dublin street - Celtic Tiger passed some city folk by

Irish man who emigrated to find work dies in Australian blaze

Ned Kelly to be laid to rest alongside his family
_________________

For the case, the prosecution named the incidents “nonsense,” while the defense argued that Forrester had “followed the bank’s instructions when confronted by robbers....No amount of money is worth a human life,” was the protocol when it came to bank robberies at the Bank of Queensland branch at Mudgeeraba on the Gold Coast where Forrester worked.

Bill Potts, Forrester’s counsel for the case, said that he believed the criminals in the case were not actually Irish terrorists, and that “the perpetrators were probably “laughing down their sleeves at the moment".

The jury’s decision in Forrester’s case puts an end to what Forrester has described as “2 and a half years of pure hell.” The prosecution could not prove that Forrester had any motive to need the $40,000, essentially proving Forrester’s innocence.

Forrester’s counsel Bill Potts remarked that his client was “a good man, a decent man, a family man,” and that he was very much looking forward to getting back to his  “ordinary, suburban life.” He returned this week to the bank to resume work.