FBI agent Mr David Rupert, chief witness in the trial of alleged "Real IRA" leader Mr Michael McKevitt, was picked up by police in Alabama and questioned about having a runaway 15-year-old girl in his truck, the Special Criminal Court heard yesterday.
In 1976, Mr Rupert and another man were driving across the US when they picked up two underage girls at Fort Worth in Texas. They were stopped by state troopers in Phoenix City, Alabama, handcuffed, taken to the police station and questioned on suspicion of having sex with underage girls.
Cross examined by Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, Mr Rupert denied lying to the court when he said he was arrested only twice in his life, in relation to bad cheques. He denied he was "arrested" on this occasion, saying the term had a different meaning in the US.
He admitted being picked up by the Alabama police and questioned about having an underage girl in his car. "The charge would have been white slavery if there had been anything to it," he added. "But that's not an arrest."
"You were handcuffed, brought to the police station and questioned" about having sex with an underage girl? counsel asked. 'Yes," Mr Rupert replied but again denied being "arrested". "Can I suggest to you that you are lying?" counsel asked. "No," the witness replied.
Mr Rupert said the other driver picked the two girls up. Mr Hartnett put it to Mr Rupert that he gave the details of this incident to two journalists as recently as last May. He said to the witness he told the journalists that one of the girls was "offloaded" on to another truck and the second girl was kept in his \ truck for a week.
Mr Rupert said the other driver had picked up both girls who were runaways from a children's home, and was sleeping with the second girl aged 15, but that he \ had not. He said the only thing he was interested in was keeping his job as he had a wife and stepson.
He said he told the Alabama police that the girls were picked up at Fort Worth, Texas, but admitted that he failed to inform the trooper that the 15-year-old girl had been in the truck for a week before being stopped in Alabama. Mr Hartnett said the girl was later taken into care.
Earlier, Mr Rupert told the court that he scouted the US/Mexican border as a possible entry point to the US for Mr McKevitt. Mr Rupert said Mr McKevitt wanted to get into the US and he went to El Paso in Texas to video US customs arrangements there.
"One of his \ plans was that he was going to Mexico with his wife and kids on holiday and he could come into the US from there," he said.
Mr Rupert also said he went to El Paso in 1999 or in spring 2000 to investigate the possibility of using Mexico as "an export route" to take arms from the US in containers and send them to Ireland. He said that at the direction of Mr McKevitt he went to El Paso with a video camera, walked over the bridge and took a video of the customs procedures.
"I did this with the full knowledge of the FBI and the British Security Service \ and was reimbursed with expenses by the FBI and the BSS," he said.
Mr Rupert told Mr Hartnett he has visited El Paso about half a dozen times over 30 years but he denied he was involved in smuggling between Mexico and the US. He said he was aware that onions were trucked from Texas to the northern states. But he denied knowing anything about "onions, marijuana and the Mexican border".
"I was not involved in any smuggling along any of the borders. I don't know anything about onions and marijuana," he said.
Mr Rupert admitted that his brother Dale had been arrested at Christmas, 1995, and was jailed for 18 months for smuggling marijuana.
He said: "I was sorry he got caught. He was 55 years old and should have known better."