CONVICTED 'REAL IRA' leader Michael McKevitt lost his fight yesterday to have hearsay evidence from an FBI spy who infiltrated the organisation excluded from the Omagh bomb civil action.
Mr Justice Morgan, the judge hearing the multi-million pound compensation case at the High Court in Belfast, ruled that more than 2,300 pages of e-mails and documents involving David Rupert, the American trucker-turned intelligence agent, can be introduced.
Lawyers for McKevitt, one of five men being sued by relatives of some of the 29 people murdered in the terrorist atrocity, had argued it would be unfair to allow the material.
With Rupert on a witness-protection programme and forbidden by his FBI handlers from even appearing via video-link, they claimed it would deprive them of the chance to cross-examine him and test his credibility.
The resistance from McKevitt, who is serving a 20-year sentence for directing terrorism after Rupert's dramatic appearance as a key prosecution witness at his criminal trial in Dublin in 2003, was backed by Colm Murphy, another of those named in the families' action.
Murphy, they allege, provided the telephones used in the transportation of the bomb into Omagh on August 15, 1998.
Both McKevitt and Murphy, along with the three other defendants - Séamus McKenna, Liam Campbell and Séamus Daly - deny responsibility for the massacre.
McKevitt was jailed for 20 years by the Special Criminal Court in August 2003 after he was convicted of directing the activities of a terrorist organisation, and of being a member of the 'Real IRA'.
After studying the legislation which governs hearsay issues, Mr Justice Morgan backed the bid to bring in the Rupert material.
But he also stressed that its significance could still be contested.
Issuing his ruling on Day 15 of the case, he said: "Conscious of my obligation to ensure a fair trial for all of the parties, I consider that this is properly achieved by permitting the plaintiffs to admit the evidence and applying the appropriate safeguards contained within the 1997 Order.
"That does not in any way diminish the entitlement of any defendant to a fair trial in this action, nor does it prohibit or predetermine a submission on behalf of the defendants once the evidence is received that I should accord it no weight."
As well as the e-mails and documents, the families' lawyers plan to use transcripts from the more than 10 days Rupert spent in the witness box at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.
Mr Justice Morgan said he was also aware of substantial material which McKevitt will seek to use in a bid to portray the spy as "a dishonest and unprincipled person whose primary interest is in securing monetary gain".
The judge added: "I immediately recognise that there is force in the submission advanced on behalf of these defendants that I will not have the opportunity to assess the demeanour of Mr Rupert in the witness box, and that the transcript may be an unsatisfactory substitute for that.
"I also accept that there are likely to be questions related to the matters, the subject of this action, which were not posed in the criminal proceedings in Dublin and which it might be advantageous for the third-named defendant (McKevitt) to pose in these proceedings."
Meanwhile, Mr Justice Morgan also confirmed that the trial was being classified as civil, compensatory proceedings.
It followed arguments by the defendants' lawyers that the case constituted a criminal charge, with subsequent entitlement to rights, based on the allegations that they were responsible for murdering 29 people, and the plaintiffs' desire to hold the wrongdoers to account.
The trial was adjourned until Thursday, when a further ruling on security services documents is to be made.
It will then move to Dublin on Monday when nearly 30 Garda witnesses are due to begin giving evidence during a week of hearings.