A suspended detective Garda sergeant who was today cleared of planting a shotgun at a Traveller encampment in Donegal has said he is likely to now take legal action against the State.
Mr John White, from Ballybofey, was charged with illegal possession of a double barrelled sawn-off shotgun at the site near the village of Burnfoot in May 1998.
Speaking on RTÉ radio this evening, Mr White said he was now likely to take a civil action against the State over his treatment.
His accomplice in the alleged incident gave evidence at Letterkenny District Court over the last four weeks that Mr White hid the weapon.
Mr White (51), who is credited with thwarting a string of "Real" IRA attacks, has spent the last five years trying to clear his name.
The 'not guilty' verdict delivered by a jury of six men and six women was greeted by applause from his supporters, friends and family in the public gallery, many of whom burst into tears.
Earlier, while speaking outside the court Mr White claimed he was the victim of an ineffectual Garda investigation concocted by officers trying to destroy his credibility.
"I'd like to say to the people of Ireland I'm innocent," he said. "It took a month, practically a month here, to present this case, it took the jury, and I thank them very much, less than an hour to suss it out because there was no evidence.
"There was no evidence from the start, not a bit," Mr White added. "The case was brought against me to destroy my credibility."
It is the second time he has been tried and acquitted. In January 2005 he was found not guilty on six counts of making false statements and attempting to pervert the course of justice on direction of a trial judge.
Mr White insists he has been the subject of a vendetta orchestrated by former colleagues and senior officers in the force. He claims allegations he made to an internal Garda investigative team in 1998, headed by Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty that officers had concocted a murder confession are the basis of this.
Mr White also claims information he had about a planned "Real" IRA attack in the summer of 1998 was not acted on.
Taking the stand during his latest trial he reiterated the allegation, claiming that Assistant Commissioner Dermot Jennings said senior Garda management had decided "to let one through". Asst Com Jennings has denied the allegation.
Mr White told the court that in August 1998 he passed on information to the Garda secure intelligence unit in Dublin that a car had been ordered to carry a bomb for detonation in Omagh.
Weeks after Mr White claims the detail was handed over, the town was devastated by a bomb that killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.
"I have consistently claimed that I have handed good, top class intelligence to a number of officers in our job in a 14-day period coming up to it (the Omagh bomb)," Mr White said. "I stand by that."