The New York chef who was to be charged in connection with a break-in at Castlereagh Special Branch offices in Belfast in 2002 has told the Belfast Telegraph of his relief and anger after authorities said he would not be put on trial.

Larry Zaitschek (41), who lives in the US, had been accused of aggravated burglary, assault and imprisonment of a police officer following the robbery that shook the peace process. Mr Zaitschek was also accused of having information of use to terrorists.

But the PPS yesterday said it had decided to drop the case against him because he would not receive a fair trial.

It took the decision after the police said they could not make all relevant material available to the PPS. The police said this new material did not originate from either them or the security services.

Mr Zaitschek told the Belfast Telegraph: “It’s a tremendous weight off my shoulders. But at the same time I’ve known from day one that they’ve not had a case against me. I know I didn’t do it,”

Zaitschek said he’s most angry about how the case has impacted his relationship with his son Pearse, whom he hasn’t seen since his estranged wife entered a witness protection program with the boy in the summer of 2002.

“I’ve been deprived of my son since March 2002 for a case that never existed,” said Zaitschek, “My son is about to turn 11, and the last time I saw him he was not even four. And that the PPS expects people now, after seven years, to swallow this line that there was new evidence that they can’t disclose, so I can’t get a fair trial, is just an insult to people’s intelligence,” he added.

Zaitchek, who got the cook’s job at Castlereagh in November 1998, said his relationship with IRA informer Denis Donaldson had been “blown way out of proportion by the media”.

He said that he had met Donaldson in New York in the early 1990s, and later saw him a few times socially after moving to Northern Ireland in 1995. He last saw Donaldson in 1997.

When Donaldson admitted to being a British spy within the republican movement in December 2005, Zaitschek says he wasn’t sure what that revelation meant for his own case.

“Because as far as I knew, Denis would have had no knowledge that I was working at Castlereagh. I hadn’t spoken with Denis for a year-and-a-half prior to me even starting that job,” he said.

Does he think Donaldson could have set him up as a fall guy for Castlereagh?

“I don’t believe that. The fact of the matter is apparently Denis was apparently on the Brit payroll, but I can’t believe that Denis would ever do me any harm.”

He said he would love to return to Northern Ireland, “but I’m going to take the advice of my lawyers on that. All of my energies will be focused at, getting direct contact with my son.”

Unionist furious over Castlereagh break-in decision

The reaction came after the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said that the “test for prosecution is no longer met” in respect of Larry Zaitschek for his alleged role in the break-in at Castlereagh Police Station on March 17, 2002 and in respect of two offences of collecting information. He has always denied having anything to do with it.

DUP Assembly member Ian Paisley Jnr, a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, branded the decision “a disgrace”.

TUV leader Jim Allister said he was not satisfied with the police explanation.