The man cleared of one of Britain's largest bank robberies may launch legal action after branding his failed prosecution a farce.
Police and prosecutors were accused of overseeing a fiasco after Chris Ward, 26, walked free almost four years after the £26.5m Northern Bank heist in Belfast.
The bank employee's family was held hostage in December 2004 while he was forced to go to the vaults and load huge sums of cash into the bandits' van.
Police blamed the IRA in the aftermath of the raid and the huge political fall-out threatened to undermine the Northern Ireland peace process.
The collapse of the allegations against Mr Ward make it the third major case where police have failed to secure convictions after unsuccessful prosecutions over the Omagh bombing and the murder of Robert McCartney.
Mr Ward was acquitted after Belfast Crown Court Judge Mr Justice Richard McLaughlin dubbed a central pillar of the indictment "coincidence and chance".
Afterwards, Mr Ward's solicitor Niall Murphy said: "Mr Ward has been rescued from the appalling vista of a miscarriage of justice but there is no guarantee that this will prevail on every occasion. There must be a root and branch analysis of how some high profile criminal cases are prosecuted."
He said the "Kafka-esque farce", which temporarily derailed Northern Ireland's political process, started from the premise that Mr Ward was guilty and worked back.
A spokesman for the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) "wholeheartedly" rejected claims that the case had been driven by political concerns. Prosecuting QC Gordon Kerr said the Service applied the test of whether to take a case forward rigorously and impartially in all cases.
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A spokesman for the Northern Bank said ruthless and dangerous criminals had targeted the company. "It is disappointing that such a major crime remains unsolved. All those caught up in the robbery were traumatised by what happened and we would ask the press and media to respect their privacy at this time."
