The Poyntzpass double-murder trial yesterday heard a witness challenged about his honesty.
Mr Edgar Nugent rejected defence claims that he was a determined liar, although he accepted that not only would he tell lies, but would persist in them, and cover them up.
The Banbridge man has claimed that hours before the murders of Mr Philip Allen and Mr Damien Trainor he saw the four men who were later arrested for the shooting.
While he also conceded he confused dates and times, he maintained he saw the men at the Banbridge home of one of them, 30-year-old Mr Stephen McClean.
Mr McClean, from Hillside Park, Banbridge, and 32-year-old Mr Noel McCready, of Dickson Park, Seapatrick, are on trial at Belfast Crown Court accused of the murders in the Railway Bar, Poyntzpass, on March 3rd 1998.
A third man, Ryan Robley (30), of Highfield Gardens, Banbridge, who has admitted the murders is awaiting sentence, while the fourth man Mr Nugent says he saw in Mr McClean's flat, Mr David Keyes, was murdered in the LVF wing of the Maze jail as he awaited trial.
Mr Nugent said that when he went to Mr McClean's flat to ask for a driving lesson and saw the men, "I felt there was a tension, as if I was disturbing something - that these guys had private business".
He further claimed he had gone to the flat to collect money Mr McClean owed him, but accepted he had not told police this. Mr Nugent conceded he could not explain why he had not told police.
Under cross-examination by Mr Arthur Harvey, for Mr McCready, Mr Nugent admitted that when he told detectives he had "forgotten" about the driving lesson, it was a lie.
Asked how he felt about "opening this statement with a lie", he replied: "I was afraid, nervous and confused".
But when pressed by Mr Harvey to say that Mr McCready had not been in the flat, he said: "All I can say to you was that he was there." However, Mr Nugent did "concede" he was a man who confused dates and times. Mr Harvey said: "Not only will you tell lies but you will persist in them, and you are also practised in covering them up". The case continues today.