Witness paid $1.25m to infiltrate group, court told

The key witness in the trial of alleged Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt was paid $1.25m to infiltrate the dissident republican group, a court heard today.

FBI and MI5 agent David Rupert received the cash over a six-year period in return for a daring operation that took him right to the heart of the terror organisation behind the Omagh bomb atrocity, lawyers said.

Even though he was prepared to work for anyone willing to bankroll his activities, prosecution counsel George Birmingham said: “Mr Rupert was a figure of quite remarkable courage.

“He took on this extraordinarily dangerous task, performed with great skill over a number of years.”

McKevitt, 53, is the first person ever in the State to be charged with directing terrorism, a special offence introduced by the Government after the August 1998 Real IRA bombing which killed 29 people.

He is also accused of membership of the outlawed republican terror organisation, which is opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process. He denies the charges.

As his trial got under way amid tight security at Dublin’s Special Criminal Court, the prosecution said the case against him depended heavily on the testimony of Mr Rupert, an American businessman who met McKevitt more than 20 times.

McKevitt had told him of his past role as quartermaster in the Provisional IRA and said he was considering waging a campaign of violence against his former comrades, the court heard.

The prosecution claimed a dossier was compiled that included details on the holiday home of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.

“Information was being assembled about the whereabouts and the lifestyle of leading individuals in the leadership of Sinn Fein,” Mr Birmingham said.

The accused, from Beech Park, Blackrock, Dundalk, Co Louth, was also attempting to forge an alliance between the Real IRA and other republican splinter organisations including the Continuity IRA and the Irish National Liberation Army, according to information supplied by Mr Rupert.

As the prosecution opened its case, it was claimed that Mr Rupert, who is due to appear in the witness box on Monday, first learned of McKevitt’s plans at a meeting held in the Four Seasons Hotel in Co Monaghan on August 29, 1999.

Even though other alleged top dissident republicans were present, Mr Birmingham told the court: “At that meeting it was obvious to all concerned that Mr McKevitt was very much in charge.”

McKevitt saw the future struggle as involving cyber terrorism, it was claimed.

He also discussed the Omagh bombing when a car packed with 500lbs of explosives was driven into the Co Tyrone town eight months earlier and allegedly said it was a joint operation with the CIRA.

“The Real IRA built the bomb and the Continuity IRA had chosen the target and delivered it,” the prosecution said Mr Rupert revealed in a statement.

McKevitt, balding and wearing glasses, clinched his fist in defiance towards his partner Bernadette Sands McKevitt in the public gallery as he was led into the dock.

Ms Sands McKevitt, the sister of hunger striker and republican icon Bobby Sands, led a small party of supporters in the packed courtroom.

The charges facing McKevitt relate to the period between August 29 1999 and March 28 2001 – after the attack on Omagh.

As they were read out, Laurence Rush, whose wife Libby was killed in the explosion and the only one of the victims’ relatives who travelled to Dublin for the case, shouted out: “What about Omagh?”

Despite appeals from the defence for action to be taken against him, Mr Rush was allowed to remain in the courtroom.

As it set out its case the prosecution stressed that Mr Rupert’s evidence would be crucial.

The American, who first came into contact with republicans when he first visited Ireland in 1992, was not an accomplice in any way, Mr Birmingham stressed.

He added: “This is not a case of someone who was a participant trying to cut a deal.

“It’s not the case he was a supergrass or anything of that nature.”

Mr Birmingham admitted that Mr Rupert, who had built up a successful business in the construction industry before an accident involving one of his lorries left him facing a massive claim, was prepared to work for anyone who would pay.

“At one stage he humorously described himself as a whore,” the barrister said.

At first his links had been with Republican Sinn Fein, a political organisation affiliated to the Continuity IRA, the court was told.

But after meeting a prominent Republican Sinn Fein member from Derry, it was alleged that there was growing disenchantment within that organisation about its leadership who were “inactive and ineffective.”

It was at this point the spy was told about the coming together of dissident republicans into an emerging organisation styling itself as Oglaigh na hEireann (the IRA).

Along with Mr Rupert, McKevitt and Mr Donnelly, other senior dissident republicans named in court as Philip Kent and a man known only as Sean attended the crucial meeting at the Four Seasons hotel, it was claimed.

Mr Rupert was given the task of using his contacts within Republican Sinn Fein to entice that organisation into acting as the political wing for the new terror coalition envisaged by McKevitt, the court was told. But the attempt never succeeded.

During other meetings with McKevitt it was alleged that the FBI agent was told of plans to shoot a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Derry.

“Mr McKevitt had prohibited that because the plan was not sufficiently spectacular,” the prosecution claimed.

During the undercover operation it was claimed that when McKevitt was challenged to map out his plans for the organisation he said car bombs were now out unless they were directed at British army targets.

“He spoke of taking the campaign to London and exacting a huge financial toll,” the prosecution said.

After infiltrating the dissidents Mr Rupert was also asked to purchase equipment in the US including voice synthesisers, encryption software, giant-sized flashbulbs and catalogues for spying equipment, the court was told.

Mr Birmingham added: “On occasions he brought back with him sums of money. When he took this it appears he had the clearance of the FBI and the British security services.”

Earlier during legal arguments defence counsel Hugh Hartnett told the court that Mr Rupert was planning to publish a money-spinning book about his alleged infiltration.

Mr Hartnett claimed that the prosecution’s star witness was set to receive 55% of all profits generated by the story and had struck a deal with some journalists to ghost-write the book.

Amid fears that those reporters were sitting on the benches behind him he succeeded in having them moved back into the public gallery.

The trial, which is expected to last for up to four weeks, was adjourned until tomorrow.