Omagh spy ‘should testify by video link’

FBI SPY David Rupert’s evidence in the landmark civil action against five men suspected of the Omagh bombing should be given from the United States to protect his life, a court heard yesterday.

With the trial of the alleged terrorists behind the atrocity which claimed 29 lives provisionally fixed for January next year, lawyers for the victims’ families urged a High Court judge to allow the key witness to testify using a video link.

Lord Brennan QC told how Rupert, the trucking company boss turned agent who helped clinch the 20-year sentence handed out to Michael McEvitt for directing terrorism, had placed huge pressures on the security services during the Real IRA boss’s trial in Dublin last year.