micheailin o'cinnsealach (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} fenian32) wrote,@ 2008-05-16 12:58:00 |
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Court told garda tried to block terrorism statement
By Sarah Stack
Irish Examiner
16 May 2008
A SENIOR garda attempted to block a statement that claimed he had no concerns about terrorism in Northern Ireland, the Omagh civil action case heard yesterday.
An internal MI5 memo alleged that chief superintendent Dermot Jennings wanted to remove the report because it cast doubt on the credibility of an FBI informer who had infiltrated the Real IRA.
The document maintained if the garda disputed that he told David Rupert that he was “only being interested in illegal activity in the Republic of Ireland” it would make him an untrustworthy source.
Rupert’s evidence was paramount in the conviction of alleged RIRA leader Michael McKevitt in August 2003, who was jailed for 20 years for directing terrorism, unrelated to the Omagh bomb attack.
Chief supt Jennings, promoted to assistant commissioner in 2001, was not called to give evidence at McKevitt’s criminal trial, and has not been listed to appear before the landmark civil case.
Michael O’Higgins SC, for McKevitt, told Dublin District Court that Rupert and Mr Jennings had numerous meetings in 1997 and described one as an “abortion of a meeting in a bread van” during which Rupert asked for more money.
Mr O’Higgins then turned to the MI5 memo, which he said, in parts, read like something from a cheap James Bond novel.
Typed up in 2001 by a senior member of the British security services, it referred to an email sent by Rupert in 1998 that alleged that in 1997 chief supt Jennings expressed indifference to terrorism in the north, and was only apparently interested in illegal activity in the south. Superintendent Diarmuid O’Sullivan, of the special detective unit, told the court he would be shocked if the senior officer had no concerns as stated “considering he has spent most of his service endeavouring to prevent terrorism in Northern Ireland”.
For almost four hours on day 21 of the unprecedented case, Mr O’Sullivan was grilled over the credibility and trustworthiness of the FBI agent.
The €17.6 million civil action by six families is against five men they believe are responsible for the RIRA blast in August 199,8 which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins. Although more than 50 gardaí were summonsed to give evidence in Dublin, just seven out of first 29 officers listed for this week have taken to the witness box.
By Sarah Stack
Irish Examiner
16 May 2008
A SENIOR garda attempted to block a statement that claimed he had no concerns about terrorism in Northern Ireland, the Omagh civil action case heard yesterday.
An internal MI5 memo alleged that chief superintendent Dermot Jennings wanted to remove the report because it cast doubt on the credibility of an FBI informer who had infiltrated the Real IRA.
The document maintained if the garda disputed that he told David Rupert that he was “only being interested in illegal activity in the Republic of Ireland” it would make him an untrustworthy source.
Rupert’s evidence was paramount in the conviction of alleged RIRA leader Michael McKevitt in August 2003, who was jailed for 20 years for directing terrorism, unrelated to the Omagh bomb attack.
Chief supt Jennings, promoted to assistant commissioner in 2001, was not called to give evidence at McKevitt’s criminal trial, and has not been listed to appear before the landmark civil case.
Michael O’Higgins SC, for McKevitt, told Dublin District Court that Rupert and Mr Jennings had numerous meetings in 1997 and described one as an “abortion of a meeting in a bread van” during which Rupert asked for more money.
Mr O’Higgins then turned to the MI5 memo, which he said, in parts, read like something from a cheap James Bond novel.
Typed up in 2001 by a senior member of the British security services, it referred to an email sent by Rupert in 1998 that alleged that in 1997 chief supt Jennings expressed indifference to terrorism in the north, and was only apparently interested in illegal activity in the south. Superintendent Diarmuid O’Sullivan, of the special detective unit, told the court he would be shocked if the senior officer had no concerns as stated “considering he has spent most of his service endeavouring to prevent terrorism in Northern Ireland”.
For almost four hours on day 21 of the unprecedented case, Mr O’Sullivan was grilled over the credibility and trustworthiness of the FBI agent.
The €17.6 million civil action by six families is against five men they believe are responsible for the RIRA blast in August 199,8 which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins. Although more than 50 gardaí were summonsed to give evidence in Dublin, just seven out of first 29 officers listed for this week have taken to the witness box.
