An American chef at the heart of an alleged IRA raid on Castlereagh police station broke his silence for the first time last night (Friday) to voice his innocence of any involvement.
Speaking from his New York home last night Larry Zaitschek categorically denied playing any part in the St Patrick's Day break-in at Special Branch offices in Castlereagh, in March 2002.
And the American chef last night claimed that shadowy elements of Northern Ireland's intelligence community were attempting to implicate him in something he insists he had nothing to do with.
Larry Zaitschek says the first he knew of the break-in at Castlereagh was when police contacted him on his mobile phone on the morning after the raid.
"The police phoned me on the Monday morning and told me there had been a break-in at Castlereagh and they were speaking to anyone who had worked there," Mr Zaitschek says.
"I told them that I was in Lisburn and that I'd go to Willowfield police station and see them when I got back to Belfast that afternoon.
"I had no idea what had happened and thought they were just going through the routine of ruling out anyone who had been there."
Mr Zaitschek says he was not overly concerned that he had been in the Castlereagh using the station's gym facilities just hours before the break-in, as he had been accompanied by his four-year-old son.
"I thought it was strange when they asked me to bring whatever coat I'd worn the night before, as I hadn't actually been wearing any coat," he says.
"But I brought the clothes I'd been wearing and was interviewed for 90 minutes."
It was during this interview that the chef informed detectives how he had brought his four-year-old son Pearse along with him to the Castlereagh gym on St Patrick's night.
"The following day the detectives phoned me again and asked me to bring the shoes I'd been wearing on the night, which I agreed to," he says.
"During the questioning they asked to fingerprint me and told me they would be doing forensic tests on my clothes.
"I said okay because I knew I'd nothing to do with any break-in.
"I told them every detail about my life, everyone I knew in Castlereagh and everything I'd done on the night.
"I told them who I'd seen while in Castlereagh on the night and who I'd spoken to that night.
"I told them how I'd said goodbye to some of the police on duty and how one of the guys in the canteen had walked me and Pearse to my car and we'd shaken hands as I was leaving Castlereagh.
"I was going back to America and we wouldn't be seeing each other again," he adds.
"I wasn't overly concerned about the questioning as I thought they were just eliminating me from inquiries.
"If I had been an IRA mole breaking into Castlereagh would I have brought my four-year-old son along with me?"
And Mr Zaitschek said that he informed detectives that he was due to return home to his native New York to take up a new job as a chef and supplied them with his address and phone number.
"I honestly thought that would be the last I'd hear from them because I knew I had nothing to do with it," he says.
But the 32-year-old said he became concerned when he learned in newspapers in America that his girlfriend and friends in Belfast were being questioned about the break-in.
"Suddenly I became public enemy number one. All this stuff started to appear in newspapers and on television that I was a super IRA mole and that I knew Bobby Storey," the chef says.
"The first time I ever heard of Bobby Storey in my life was when the newspapers started saying I was his best mate.
"I started to get really worried that someone, somewhere was trying to set me up for something I knew nothing about."
Mr Zaitschek says that his worst fears came true when he was surrounded by seven FBI agents in a New York subway station on March 29 last year.
"I had got off the subway and was going to my mother's house when these guys with ear-pieces and trench coats surrounded me and bustled me into a coffee shop," Mr Zaitschek says.
"They sat me down at a table with two police officers from Northern Ireland. One of them told me he knew I was involved with the break-in.
"It was only then that the dime dropped that I was being fitted up for Castlereagh.
"They offered to take me into a witness protection programme and offered me money and all sorts of deals.
"They kept telling me think about my son Pearse.
"I was really scared and angry and I told the FBI to either arrest me or let me go.
"They asked me to go to FBI headquarters with them and when I asked if I'd need a lawyer they said no.
"I told them it was Easter weekend and I wanted to spend time with my family."
The chef said he agreed to be interviewed by the PSNI officers at FBI headquarters on the Monday morning.
"My lawyer spoke with them on the Monday and told the FBI to stop harassing me," he says.
But Mr Zaitschek claims that he became increasingly alarmed when he learned that his son and estranged wife, who he had separated with in April 1999, had been taken into a police witness programme.
"My wife and I had separated in 1999 so what could she tell them about me and my working in Castlereagh," he says.
"From then on I was refused all contact with my son. I haven't seen or even been allowed to speak Pearse since then."
He says he then started to receive a series of phone calls from shadowy intelligence personnel offering to allow him to speak to his son.
"He told me that if I helped them he'd let me speak to my son on the phone for 10 minutes," Mr Zaitschek says.
"I was really angry because now they were using my son as a bartering tool to get me to admit to something which I had nothing to do with.
"They have my son and they won't even let me speak to him on the phone.
"I have spent thousands of dollars sending him birthday gifts and Christmas presents and they are all returned to me.
"I sent a photograph of me on a beach to Pearse and they wouldn't even let him see a picture of his daddy.
"This is a four-year-old child we are talking about."
Larry Zaitschek says he first came to Northern Ireland in 1995 and started working as a chef on October 16 1998.
"The people working in Castlereagh were a tight knit bunch and I understood that because of the work they did. But they liked me because I was a good chef and I provided them with good food.
"Like other people who work together we socialised together.
"It was a normal job where people get on with each other."
And the American chef revealed how in late 2001 he had been invited to a special luncheon with then chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan to thank him for working long hours in the Castlereagh canteen over the Drumcree crisis.
"I was invited to a lunch held by Ronnie Flanagan held in the police training centre at Garnerville,' the chef says.
"The lunch was to thank us for going above and beyond the call of duty during the Drumcree crisis that year.
"I had worked 18-hour days during Drumcree, feeding the policemen and women who were out on the street trying to keep a lid on things.
"Ronnie Flanagan shook my hand and thanked me. I was just pleased that my work was appreciated."
When Mr Zaitschek's contract in Castlereagh ended in late 2001 he went to work as a chef in another police station in north Belfast, but asked if he could return to Castlereagh to use the gym facilities.
"When I left Castlereagh they gave me a Good Luck card and everyone signed it and wished me luck," he says.
"I asked if I could use the gym, because it had great facilities and it was free.
"I was told it would be no problem.
"I went there regularly and took Pearse along with me.
"When I got a good job in New York I gave my employers one month's notice, so everyone knew I was leaving."
And speaking about his much publicised friendship with Sinn Féin's Stormont administrator Denis Donaldson, who is currently awaiting trial for an alleged IRA spy-ring within Stormont, Mr Zaitschek said: "The last time I spoke to Denis Donaldson was maybe six years ago.
"I am not embarrassed that I know Denis Donaldson.
"I know people from right across the board in Northern Ireland.
"I met Denis Donaldson in the US in the Irish/American circles.
"When I came to Ireland I met him again and he made me feel welcome.
"He never once suggested anything to me about politics and never once asked me to do anything.
"I would like to think that I am an intelligent man who knows his own mind and knows right from wrong.
"Just because I wanted to know about the situation in Ireland doesn't mean that I would go to the extremes of the IRA.
"That is just absurd."
And Mr Zaitschek says that his life has been ruined by the allegation that he was involved in the Castlereagh raid and he is now being forced to take court action see speak to his son.
"My life is in tatters," he says.
"I have a son who I haven't seen or spoken to in a year. The police have my son and his mother hidden away somewhere.
"I am being forced to go to court with the help of my solicitor in Northern Ireland Joe Rice to try and even speak to Pearse on the phone.
"There is all this talk in the newspapers that I am going to be extradited but no one has spoken to me or my solicitors in America.
"My whole life has been totally and utterly ruined for something which I know absolutely nothing about."
