Rupert to detail further contacts with McKevitt

The chief prosecution witness in the trial of alleged "Real IRA" leader Mr Michael McKevitt will today outline further details of his infiltration of dissident republican groups.

Yesterday, Mr Rupert, a protected witness, told the Special Criminal Court that the Omagh bombing was a joint operation by the "Real IRA" and the Continuity IRA. The August 1998 attack killed 29 people and two unborn twins.

Mr Rupert (51), an American who ran a trucking business and who agreed to infiltrate dissident republicans for the FBI and the British Security Service, told the court he "clicked right away" with Mr McKevitt on their first meeting.

He claimed Mr McKevitt was "horribly upset" about the carnage of the Omagh bomb, as it had been left in the wrong place by the Continuity IRA bombers.

Mr Rupert slso told the court he was approached by veteran Co Donegal republican Mr Joe O'Neill to smuggle explosives into Ireland. He claimed Mr O'Neill asked him to obtain Semtex, detonating cord and detonators in the US and ship them to Ireland.

Mr O'Neill suggested putting Semtex inside teddy bears, detonating cord inside jump ropes and detonators inside radios and posting them to a school in Ballyshannon, where his sister worked as a teacher.

Today is the fifth day of the trial of Mr McKevitt (53), Blackrock, Co Louth, who has pleaded not guilty to two charges - membership of an unlawful organisation, the IRA, between August 29th, 1999, and March 28th, 2001, and to directing its activities between March 29th, 1999, and October 23rd, 2000.