Gardai believe witness faces substantial threat

The head of gardai intelligence told the Special Criminal Court today that there was a ''a very real and very substantial'' threat to the lives of FBI witness David Rupert and his family because of his involvement in the case of the alleged Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt.

Detective Chief Superintendent Martin Callinan, of the Security and Intelligence Section of Garda Headquarters, said his role was the monitoring of subversive and criminal activity in this jurisdiction.