The FBI agent David Rupert, who is the chief prosecution witness against alleged "Real" IRA leader Michael McKevitt, told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that he suggested to MI5 that they should use hypnosis to get more information about his infiltration of dissident republican groups.
Mr Rupert said he had raised the suggestion with the British Security Service (BSS) because he felt that he was "losing" information about his meetings with dissident republicans.
He said he used to try to remember all the details - phone numbers, licence plate numbers and who attended - of his meetings with dissident republicans before he e-mailed them to the FBI and BSS.
He said that he had read an article about hypnosis being used to look into people's memory. The BSS told him they would look at using hypnosis "if it was necessary".
Asked by defence counsel Mr Hugh Hartnett SC if he had "amnesia", Mr Rupert replied: "No, not at all. It's a very long time and there are a lot of specifics. I don't have amnesia." The court also heard that Mr Rupert was paid over £276,000 by the BSS between 1997 and 2002 on top of money that he was also paid by the FBI.
Asked by Mr Hartnett if he had declared the money from the BSS to the US revenue, Mr Rupert said: "I filed my tax returns properly."
Mr Rupert described meeting Assistant Garda Commissioner Dermot Jennings, who was then a detective chief superintendent in charge of Garda Intelligence, in a van in Co Sligo shortly after he leased the Drowse Bar in Co Leitrim in 1996.
He said he had come over with $25,000, including $8,000 given to him by the FBI, in June 1996 to lease the bar as part of an intelligence gathering operation and had returned to the United States at the end of September, 1996 with no money.
He said he met Assistant Commissioner Jennings in the back of a van in a parking lot in Co Sligo.
Mr Rupert said he asked Assistant Commissioner Jennings about finances or money and the Garda officer asked him if he wanted mileage for coming down to meet him.
Mr Rupert said no. Mr Rupert said that at that stage he did not realise that the FBI had taken him off their books and he was being handled by the Garda. Mr Rupert said that he had reported to the BSS that Assistant Commissioner Jennings had said to him that he did not care about terrorism in Northern Ireland, and that he was only interested in illegal activity in the Republic.
Asked if he had heard from the BSS that Assistant Commissioner Jennings was "shocked" and said he had never said such things, Mr Rupert said: "It could have happened, but I don't recall."
It was the 17th day of the trial of Michael McKevitt (53), Beech Park, Blackrock, Dundalk, Co Louth, who denies membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise the IRA, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann.
The trial continues today.