A Garda surveillance expert told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that he saw the public relations officer of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement as he patrolled the Dublin to Belfast road for subversives.
Det Garda Patrick Comer of the crime and security branch said he knew Mr Joe Dillon from his time in the Special Branch and he had seen him on Sinn Fein marches.
The court has heard that Mr Dillon was one of three men arrested after gardai discovered a large cache of an explosive substance at a disused fish shop in Howth and a house at Bettystown, Co Meath.
Mr Dillon (55), Greenlawns, Skerries, has pleaded not guilty to possession of an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or to enable another person to do so at Golflinks Road, Bettystown, Co Meath, on January 5th, 1998. He also denies having an explosive substance in suspicious circumstances on the same date.
Mr Eamonn Flanagan (45), from Co Tyrone, with an address at The Square, Skerries, and Mr Seamus McLoughlin (69), Balkill Park, Howth, deny possession of an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or to enable another to do so at West Pier, Howth, Co Dublin on January 5th, 1998. They also deny having an explosive substance in suspicious circumstances on the same date.
Det Garda Comer said when he saw Mr Dillon, he followed him as part of "a pick-up exercise". He denied a suggestion by Mr John Phelan SC, for Mr Dillon, who said his client, as the public relations officer of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement, was kept under surveillance at all times.
Det Garda Comer said in January 1998, he had been instructed to patrol the roads between Dublin and Belfast to look for subversives.
He was giving evidence in the trial of the three men, whom the prosecution has claimed co-operated in the movement of the explosives from the house in Bettystown to the fish shop in Howth.
The men originally went on trial in February 1999 but it was aborted due to the illness and subsequent death of one of the judges and a retrial was ordered.
Det Garda Comer said he had not been looking for Mr Dillon's car but when he saw it he followed it. "We picked him up. We saw him as he went by and we followed him."
He agreed with Mr Phelan that Mr Dillon recognised him as he drove by but he could not comment on a suggestion that Mr Dillon was going to meet his sister on that occasion.
Cross-examined by Mr Mich ael O'Higgins SC, for Mr Flanagan, Det Garda Comer agreed that he believed Mr Flanagan had seen him on the morning of January 5th, 1998, but he was not sure if Mr Flanagan had realised he was a garda.
Earlier Det Garda Comer told the court that he saw Mr Dillon and Mr Flanagan in a car and Mr McLoughlin driving a truck and that he followed both vehicles to a house at Bettystown. Later he followed the truck to Molly Malone's at Howth.