A FORMER Garda Special Branch detective tipped off his superiors in 1992 about the Provisional IRA's plans to set off explosions in the centre of Manchester, a Dublin court was told yesterday.
Within months Det Sgt Michael (Mick) Hughes was demoted to uniform duties because he refused to divulge the identity of an informer, the court was told.
A copy of the secret document in which Sgt Hughes passed on his information on the Manchester bombings to superior officers is to be produced in the Circuit Civil Court next Tuesday.
Judge Smyth, who described the matter as a matter of very profound significance" will be asked to decide on allowing the contents of the document to be read out in court.
He was told by Mr Frank Clarke SC, who appeared with Mr John O'Donnell for the Garda Commissioner, that he would be objecting to the contents of sensitive security documents being disclosed in court.
The disclosure arose yesterday in a civil action in which Sinn Fein councillor Mr Christy Burke is suing Sgt Hughes and the State for £30,000 damages for fear and distress.
Mr Burke told his counsel Mr Peter Charleton SC, that his anxiety was caused by a warning from Sgt Hughes of a plot by British intelligence, in conjunction with a splinter group of the Provisional IRA, to murder him.
He told Mr Charleton, who appeared with Mr Robert Barron, that Sgt Hughes had told him in his home on Malahide Road, on January 4th, 1993, that his life was in grave danger because British intelligence believed Mr Burke had organised the bombing of London in December 1992.
He said he was so distressed he had to move his two sons out of his home into a friend's flat and sometimes stayed away from home himself. He had become a bundle of nerves and had to have medical treatment.
He said he believed Sgt Hughes had attempted to set him up as an informer who would pass on information to him in return for having been tipped off about the threat to his life.
Sgt Hughes's undercover work before the Manchester bombings was disclosed in the cross examination of a former senior Garda officer to evaluate the importance of information received by Sgt Hughes from his "republican informers."
Former Chief Supt Patrick Sheil said he had investigated the question of Sgt Hughes having taken it upon himself to inform Mr Burke of the alleged threat on his life. He said he believed it to have been "very low grade intelligence" which he would not have passed on to Mr Burke.
He said Sgt Hughes was eventually ordered by his superior officers to reveal the identity of his informant and had refused. As a result of this and dissatisfaction with other elements of Sgt Hughes's duties, he had been transferred to the uniformed section of the Garda. Sgt Hughes had told him during his investigation that he had gone directly to Mr Burke with the hope of cultivate ing him as an agent who would pass on information.
Former Chief Supt Sheil told Mr Brian O'Moore, for Sgt Hughes, that he would not accept Sgt Hughes had acquired a high level of intelligence from informers and contacts on matters of subversive crime.
Cross examined about the Manchester bombings in 1992, he agreed Sgt Hughes had intelligence of Manchester before the bombings and that he furnished intelligence in November 1992 about the Provisional IRA's development of a big gun a month before it was first used in south Armagh.
Judge Smyth asked if there was a report in existence on the intelligence about the Manchester bombings which Sgt Hughes had passed to his superiors. He said while the State might wish to seek a status of privilege for the document, he felt it was a matter of profound significance to the court and could not be taken lightly.
Mr O'Moore said he had a copy of his client's report to his superiors but did not have it in court. He could produce it next Tuesday. Mr Clarke said he would be objecting to disclosure of the contents of "sensitive security documents". The hearing was adjourned until Tuesday.