The Irish News
Barry McCaffrey
A former dissident republican was last night understood to be in police protective custody after providing the Garda with vital forensic evidence which could identify the Real IRA killers of Denis Donaldson. At the weekend the Real IRA caused widespread surprise when it claimed responsibility for murdering the former Sinn Fein administrator at an isolated cottage near Glenties, Co Donegal, in April 2006.
The Provisional IRA had previously been blamed for killing the 56-year-old after he had admitted spying for British military intelligence for more than 20 years. However, in its Easter statement the Real IRA claimed it had in fact murdered Mr Donaldson but had resisted admitting responsibility for more than three years to embarrass mainstream republicans.
It claimed it used a sledgehammer to break down the door of the cottage where Mr Donaldson, pictured, had been living alone before chasing him into a back bedroom and blasting him with a shotgun. However, security sources last night claimed the Real IRA had been forced to finally admit murdering Mr Donaldson after it emerged that one of its former members had passed on information about the killing to gardai and was now in protective custody in the Republic.
The former dissident is understood to have been taken into protective custody after leading detectives to the spot where the sledgehammer was hidden by Mr Donaldson's killers in Donegal. Gardai are understood to be hopeful of recovering forensic evidence from the sledgehammer, which is said to have been well preserved when recovered.
The revelation that the former dissident passed on vital information to the security forces comes just days after a Real IRA spokesman boasted that the Garda would never catch Mr Donaldson's killers. "We don't believe it's going anywhere," a Real IRA spokesman told The Sunday Tribune newspaper. "They haven't a clue."
In September last year the Real IRA attempted to kill the former member at a house in Co Donegal in what was claimed to be a dispute over drug dealing. A month later a pipe bomb partially exploded outside his home.
In February an inquest into Mr Donaldson's killing was postponed for a year after Detective Superintendent Eugene McGovern revealed that gardai were investigating a definite new line of inquiry which had only recently come to light. Mr McGovern refused to reveal details at that time.
A Garda spokesman last night refused to confirm or deny whether the force had taken a man into protective custody or if it had recovered the sledgehammer used in the Donaldson killing, stating that it would be inappropriate to comment on a "continuing investigation".
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