Gardaí raided after studying dossier, court told

Garda Special Branch detectives searched the home of alleged Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt after studying a 40-page dossier compiled by an FBI double agent, a court heard today.

Emails were also studied before the officers launched a raid on McKevitt’s house in Dundalk, Co Louth, which led to his arrest in March 2001.

As the trial continued at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Maguire told how he spent three days examining documents provided by David Rupert, the US businessman paid by American and British intelligence services to infiltrate the dissident republican terror organisation behind the Omagh bomb atrocity which killed 29 people.

Mr Maguire said: “I examined a particular statement by the man called David Rupert which comprised of over 40 pages.

“There were a number of emails and I looked at some of them. They contained specific allegations in relation to Mr McKevitt.”

McKevitt, 53, is the first man ever in the State to stand trial for the offence of directing terrorism. He is also accused of membership of the Real IRA but has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

The detective told the court that he issued a warrant to search McKevitt’s home at Beech Park, Blackrock, in Dundalk on March 28 2001.

“I was satisfied after having examined all materials that I had reasonable grounds to believe the evidence connected Mr McKevitt with membership of an unlawful organisation had been found at that premises ... and with direction of an unlawful organisation.”

McKevitt, who was sitting on benches behind his legal team after being moved from the dock, scribbled notes as the witness gave evidence.

His wife, Bernadette Sands McKevitt, sister of hunger striker and republican icon Bobby Sands, was also in court for the second day of the trial which is expected to last for four weeks.

Later the trial was adjourned until Monday because defence lawyers insisted they wanted to hear Rupert’s evidence before continuing with the Garda officers.

Mr Rupert, the construction company boss who allegedly spied on the Real IRA and other dissident republican groupings for the FBI and British and Irish security services, is crucial to the prosecution’s case.

He was paid a total of $1.25m (€1.07m) to provide information for his handlers.

During the prosecution’s opening submissions they claimed he would testify how McKevitt told him of his plans to forge a new terror organisation involving the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA.

The accused also planned to wage a huge terror campaign at the heart of the British establishment which would wreak financial havoc, it was claimed.

His other plans, according to the prosecution included branching out into cyberterrorism and even targeting top mainstream republicans including Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams.

Along with plotting attacks on members of the security services, McKevitt also believed any politicians taking seats at the Stormont power-sharing administration in Belfast were legitimate targets, it was claimed.