The former head of Garda intelligence told a court today that he would have arrested former IRA leader Brendan 'Bik' Mc Farlanefor the kidnap of supermarket executive Don Tidey if had come face to face with him.

Maze prison escapee Brendan McFarlane was arrested just hours before the Northern Ireland Secretary of State Mo Mowlam was due to sign his final papers releasing him from parole, the Special Criminal Court heard today.

A retired Garda ballistics expert told the Don Tidey kidnap trial today that he concluded that gunfire from two automatic weapons had been fired in the direction of a recruit garda and soldier who were killed when the supermarket executive was rescued almost twenty five years ago.

A retired Detective Inspector has told the Special Criminal Court in Dublin of how Donald Tidey was rescued from terrorist kidnappers in Co Leitrim in 1983 after a three-week ordeal.

Former supermarket boss Don Tidey told a court today of the "battleground'' that erupted around him when security forces rescued him from his kidnappers almost 25 years ago.