1998-2001
Running
parallel with the vicious media campaign of vilification
was a campaign of intimidation and harassment conducted
by members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit
ERU. The overt campaign was directed at the entire
McKevitt family including the three youngest children
who were aged 8, 6 and 5. The ERU sat in unmarked
cars outside their home for long periods of time;
they followed the McKevitt’s on a daily basis
by car and also on foot. They followed Bernadette
while she went shopping in Dundalk and they even
followed the children from school. On numerous occasions
the ERU stopped the children while they were playing
outside their home with their friends and asked
them their names. In the evening time after the
children were put to bed, the ERU parked opposite
the McKevitt house and shone a spotlight into the
children’s bedrooms. On Christmas day 1999,
at 1.00pm as the family sat down to their Christmas
dinner the ERU sat outside the front of the McKevitt
home and activated the police siren blaring it for
several minutes.
At
times they used a loudhailer shouting many things
including obscenities outside the home (All of these
details are documented; names in some cases, times
and numbers of cars are recorded also).
Over
the years anyone who called to their home was stopped
by the ERU and had their names taken in a very aggressive
and intimidating manner. At times even the children
of neighbours were stopped and asked their names.
On one occasion the window cleaner who had called
to collect payment was approached by members of
the ERU as he left the house. He was thrown onto
the bonnet of his car and searched while his hands
were held up his back. He was then questioned before
being allowed go free. The man was badly shaken
and when he went home he made a complaint to his
local politician.
On
another occasion one of the McKevitt children who
had attended a birthday party was dropped home by
a school friend’s mother. The ERU followed
the woman who incidentally had other children in
the car and forced her car to stop. They were very
aggressive with the woman demanding to know what
she was doing at the McKevitt’s house. The
woman was left shaken and in tears.
Some
visitors to the McKevitt home had their homes visited
by plain clothes policemen. Neighbours of the McKevitt’s
who visited their home to assist them had the ERU
sitting afterwards outside their home on many occasions
also. There are many more such incidents too numerous
to include. The McKevitt’s kept a log of the
surveillance which they passed on to Jane Winter
director of BIRW.
In
addition, meetings of the 32 County Sovereignty
Movement, which Bernadette attended, were disrupted
frequently. On one occasion a road block was set
up outside of the entrance to a hotel were the meeting
was scheduled to take place. Everyone entering the
hotel was stopped and their details taken regardless
if they were attending the meeting or not. Obviously
the hotel was reluctant to accept any further bookings
from the group.
Official
complaints were lodged with the Gardai and with
the McKevitt’s solicitor on numerous occasions.
One complaint that stands out in particular concerned
the videoing of Bernadette and one of the children
aged 7, on two separate occasions by detectives.
Understandably the family were alarmed and anxious
to know the purpose of the videoing and to whom
it would be passed on to, as It took place around
the time Rosemary Nelson was murdered.
