The jury at Letterkenny Circuit Court yesterday returned a verdict of not guilty in the case of Det Sgt John White, who was accused of planting a doublebarrelled sawn-off shotgun at a Travellers' encampment in north Donegal eight years ago.
The verdict was greeted by applause in a packed courtroom from family and supporters of Det Sgt White (50), with an address in Dreenan, Ballybofey, Co Donegal.
The jury of six men and six women took one hour to reach a verdict.
Sgt White's defence team said during the trial that he was resented within the force because he had questioned an alleged statement of admission by Frank McBrearty jnr, told senior gardaí that confidential client-solicitor conversations were bugged in Letterkenny Garda station, and said that information he passed on to Garda HQ before the 1998 Omagh bombing was ignored by gardaí.
Sgt White was previously also acquitted on separate charges in early 2005 relating to the so-called "silver bullet" affair.
The sergeant must now await the findings of the Morris tribunal, which earlier this year sent reports on these events to the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell TD.
Publication of these reports was delayed while this trial took place.
Speaking after the verdict was announced, Sgt White said that both it and his acquittal last year were due to "totally insufficient evidence in my mind to bring either case".
"In my mind and in my opinion, I have been the subject of ineffectual investigation," he said. "There was no evidence in either case."
He said it took practically a month for the case to be heard, but "less than an hour to toss it out, because there was no evidence. There was no evidence from the start."
Sgt White also questioned the decision to grant immunity from prosecution to the chief prosecution witness, Det Garda Thomas Kilcoyne.
"It was granted in the most suspicious circumstances and done so covertly that even the man that got it didn't know for 4½ years that he had it.
"That was a well-kept secret," Det Sgt White added.
"The case was brought against me to destroy my credibility in relation to allegations I had made to the Carty team and other senior officers in An Garda Síochána."
He said he believed Mr McBrearty jnr did not make the purported statement of admission while in Garda custody on December 4th, 1996, and that he had informed the Carty team that confidential meetings with solicitors were bugged in Letterkenny Garda station.
"They didn't want to know," he said.
"None of that team wanted to know."
Sgt White said he had "consistently claimed" that he "handed good intelligence to a senior officer" in the 14 days leading up to the Omagh bombing, in which 29 people died.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan died in the bombing on August 15th, 1998, called on the British and Irish governments to set up a cross-Border public judicial inquiry into Sgt White's claims.
"From the earliest meeting I had with John White, there was always a ring of truth about what he had to say," he said.