February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Hoey’s lawyer, Peter Corrigan, says the police know they have no evidence against his client and are just using him as a scapegoat to cover for their bungled attempt to find the real killers.
“There’s no use waiting 20 years to find out that someone has been fitted up,” he said this week, after his client had been remanded in custody on twenty other charges of possessing explosives and timing devices.
Hoey, aged 35 from south Armagh, has been held at Maghaberry Prison in County Antrim since September 2003. It was confirmed this week that 61 new charges will be brought against him this week.
News of the new charges was leaked to the media just days before Hoey made a bail application two weeks ago. Corrigan has expressed deep concern about the prosecution case, including the management of alleged forensic evidence and media leaks.
He told a remand hearing in Craigavon that an “abuse of process” application, based on bad faith by the prosecution, would shortly be lodged in an attempt to have proceedings against his client dismissed.
“We put the prosecution on notice that we are making an abuse of process application. We had already planned to make submission on an abuse of process in respect of the extreme delay in bringing Hoey’s case to trial,” said Corrigan, pointing out his client had first been interviewed about Omagh seven years ago.
“We are now also adding an argument of mala fides or bad faith on the part of the prosecution in respect of the entire manner in which they’ve conducted the investigation and made representations to the court.
“At the last hearing, we were at an advanced stage in organizing with the prosecution the mechanics of a committal hearing in terms of witnesses, availability and so forth.
“Yet during those discussions, nobody bothered to tell the defense that new charges were being considered. They subsequently told the media but they did not see fit to tell the court or ourselves,” Corrigan said.