A FORMER Special Branch detective had told a court he believes a Sinn Fein councillor, Mr Christy Burke, was shot in the back in an assassination attempt which was covered up.
Ex-Det Sgt Michael Hughes was giving evidence at the Circuit Civil Court in Dublin yesterday. Mr Burke has claimed £30, 000 damages against Mr Hughes and the State for the allegedly negligent handling of a threat to his life.
Mr Burke has claimed that on January 4th, 1993, Mr Hughes told him of a threat by British Intelligence, in conjunction with a splinter group of the Provisional IRA, to murder him.
He claimed Mr Hughes had attempted to recruit him for intelligence purposes and that there had either been no truth in the threat or it had been negligently conveyed. He said he had lived in fear of his life as a result and moved his two sons out of his home, sometimes staying away himself.
Yesterday Mr Hughes told Judge Esmonde Smyth that on the day he learned from an IRA informant of the threat to Mr Burke, another informant told him Mr Burke had survived a previous assassination attempt.
He told his counsel, Mr Brian O'Moore, that this informant told him shots had been fired through a door in a Dublin house in early 1992, hitting Mr Burke in the back; that Mr Burke had received private medical treatment; and that a carpenter with republican connections had removed the door.
Cross-examined by Mr Frank Clarke SC, for the Garda Commissioner, he said he had later tracked down the carpenter, who denied having removed the door.
Mr Hughes said the information about Mr Burke being shot had required verification. He had tried and failed to do this before visiting Mr Burke on January 4th 1993.
Last Friday the court heard of a secret document in which Mr Hughes had informed his superiors in November 1992 of IRA plans to blow up the centre of Manchester. The bombs had gone off the next month.
The document was produced in court yesterday, partly to rebut evidence from a garda that Mr Hughes had not acquired high-level intelligence from contacts.
Mr Clarke objected to the document being produced in evidence on the grounds of privilege.
Judge Smyth said the State was effectively saying that Mr Hughes had gone off on a frolic of his own when he informed Mr Burke of the threat and that it had no responsibility for whatever actions Mr Hughes had carried out.
After adjourning to consider the document, Judge Smyth said it made specific suggestions about future IRA acts and "the admission of the document would affect security of the State". He said "it would be entirely unwise to allow it to be admitted in evidence."
Mr Hughes said his work in the Special Detective Unit involved him in the investigation and arrest of "significant" subversives. On January 3rd, 1993, a reliable source had told him of a threat to Mr Burke's life. The next day he went to Mr Burke's home and told him he was under threat from "the boys", meaning the IRA. He asked him if he had any involvement with British Intelligence which might place him under threat by the IRA.
He did tell his chief superintendent later that there was always the possibility of gaining intelligence as a result of his visit to Mr Burke, but he had not tried to recruit him as an agent.
Immediately after seeing Mr Burke he had notified his superiors of the tip-off. He denied having told Mr Burke that British Intelligence was involved in the threat on his life.