MI5 agent gives evidence in Real IRA arms plot trial

6 May 2010
The Guardian
Owen Bowcott
Man identified only as "Amir" tells of attaching himself to accused man in Luxembourg and offering weapons

An intelligence agent began giving evidence today against three Northern Irish men accused of involvement in a dissident republican arms-smuggling plot.

The man, identified only as "Amir", appeared at Belfast crown court but was partially screened. The undercover operative, who spoke with an English accent, did not identify his branch of the security services but an earlier hearing was told the operation was part of an MI5 sting against the Real IRA.

Between them the County Armagh men – Paul Anthony John McCaugherty, 43, and Desmond Paul Kearns, 44, both from Lurgan, and 41-year-old Dermot Declan Gregory, also known as Michael Dermot, from Crossmaglen – deny a total of seven charges.

McCaugherty is accused of conspiring to possess firearms and explosives and using almost €46,000 for terrorist purposes, membership of "the Irish Republican army", and making the deeds of a restaurant in Portugal available for the purposes of terrorism. Kearns is accused of conspiring to possess firearms and explosives, and Gregory of the restaurant charge.

Amir told the court that he started work in August 2004 in an operation against Irish targets. He was told his target travelled widely in Europe buying goods and he was asked to bump into him and befriend him. The witness said he knew the man as John and was shown a photograph of him. The court heard yesterday that he was in reality the accused Kearns.Amir said he first met Kearns outside a store in Luxembourg where he was buying cut-price cigarettes and he told him he could supply them at even cheaper rates.

After a series of meetings in bars in Brussels and Amsterdam, the witness said he sold Kearns and a woman he was told was his wife, Alison, cigarettes, laptops, clothes and jewellery before mentioning that he could get guns from Pakistan.

Amir said that at one meeting Alison told him: "You should go over to Ireland and supply them with weapons," but she subsequently denied she had been serious.

In July 2005, the security services told Amir that he should introduce a man to Kearns as a weapons expert called Ejaz. The witness said that when the subject of guns was raised, Kearns said he would go back to his associates and see what they thought but insisted he did not want to get involved in any meetings himself. A tape recording of one meetings in an Amsterdam bar has been played in court.The operation, which the court previously heard related to what police believe was an international gun smuggling operation, involved numerous meetings throughout Europe and even Istanbul in Turkey.

Various conversations during the multitude of meetings were secretly taped and in some cases even videoed. Again at an earlier hearing Mr Justice Hart was told that there were 90 hours of bugged conversations.

The case continues.