McKevitt verdict - Some solace for victims of atrocity

THE guilty verdict handed down yesterday by three judges of the Special Criminal Court in the Michael McKevitt trial will inevitably be viewed in the context of the Omagh bombing.

While the conviction bears no direct relation with the Omagh atrocity, the fact that he was found guilty of directing terrorism and being a member of an illegal organisation the Real IRA which carried out the bombing, will bring a measure of solace to people whose loved ones were killed or injured.

But while their load may be lightened, their anger towards McKevitt and the Real IRA will continue to smoulder. Their sense of outrage was encapsulated in the terse words of Lawrence Rush, whose wife, Libby, was killed in the explosion, and who told McKevitt: "You make your bed and you lie in it."

Just how long the Real IRA man will lie in that bed will be decided today by the presiding judges. Potentially, the 53-year-old terrorist, who had sacked his legal team and refused to attend the court for what he described as a "political show trial," could be put behind bars for life. If so, the public would shed no tears.

Significantly, this is the first time a prosecution and conviction have been achieved in relation to directing terrorism, a new crime specified in anti-terrorist legislation rushed through by the Government in the wake of Omagh.

Effectively, in their landmark definition of what the charge means, the judges concluded that McKevitt was the man in control of the activities of the illegal organisation.

Any lingering doubts about the deadly presence of the IRA in one or other of its cynical guises, and the threat which society continues to face, have been dispelled both by the evidence heard in the course of this trial and also by the discovery of a suspected training camp in the Comeragh Mountains last weekend.

Revealing insights into the shadowy world of terrorism were given by chief prosecution witness David Rupert, the former FBI man and ex-British Secret Service agent appointed by McKevitt as the organisation's representative in the US. The judges found Rupert, who had been motivated to give evidence by the Omagh outrage, to be a reliable witness who spoke with authority.

Meanwhile, on the broader plane of general crime, the public will warmly welcome news that Justice Minister Michael McDowell is set to give the gardaí more powers under a bill due to be published at the end of the month.

In future, where crimes punishable by a sentence of at least five years are involved, the period of detention will be extended from 12 to 24 hours on the authority of a senior officer.

Another crucial change relates to DNA evidence. In a bid to remove the legal blockage preventing gardaí from taking intimate samples for evidence, saliva will be reclassified as a non-intimate sample. Furthermore, DNA samples will be held in a national data base.

Such measures make sense and will bring this country into line with international policing practice. It goes without saying, however, that adequate safeguards to protect the civil liberties of suspects must be built into any new legislation.

Coupled with yesterday's guilty verdict against a ruthless terrorist, these proposals will strengthen the legal system and help to restore confidence in the forces of law and order, which in recent times have taken something of a public relations battering.