February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in Belfast has given police the go-ahead after a new investigation involving an international panel of scientists reviewing forensic evidence.
Papers outlining the charges are due to be served later this month on Sean Gerard Hoey, who is 35, an electrician and nephew of the only man serving a sentence in connection with the bombing, Dundalk’s Colm Murphy.
It is expected to be one the biggest mass murder trials in British and Irish legal history. Hoey is already in custody on a series of explosives charges as well as possessing timer units allegedly linked to several mortar, car and roadside bombs in the months before Omagh, as well as membership of the Real IRA.
Apart from the 29 killed in the blast, including a woman pregnant with twin girls, more than 300 were injured in what was the worst single attack in Northern Ireland.
With documents running into thousands, the police files in the case have been with the DPP since last summer, after a complex 18-month review of all the forensic evidence by scientists from Toronto, New York and Switzerland.
The recent police inquiry began in May 2002, following damming criticism over the original investigation by the RUC and the then-Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, by PSNI Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan
Relatives of some of the victims who feared nobody would ever be charged with the murders mounted their own civil case against five men they believed were responsible. That may now have to be delayed until after Hoey’s trial, which could last for at least six months.
Hoey’s solicitor criticized the DPP’s move. Peter Corrigan said it was unacceptable he had not been informed that the DPP had directed police to bring new charges against his client.
“My reaction is one of profound shock,” he said. “Whilst acknowledging that the Crown and the DPP have an element of discretion, it is surprising that the DPP didn’t obtain the Attorney General’s consent for multitude murder offences.”
The solicitor said it was “most unsatisfactory” that a defense solicitor and a defendant should hear of impending murder charges through the media.
“This isn’t the way justice should be dispensed,” he said.
Corrigan said that he would be putting a case forward to the Police Ombudsman that his client was being used as a “political scapegoat to cover up for the botched police investigation into the Omagh investigation”.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the blast, welcomed the news of murder charges. “It’s what we’ve been waiting for and I would hope this will be the beginning of the end for the families,” he said.
Victor Barker from Surrey, whose son James, who was 12, was also killed, said he was delighted by the development. “It’s marvelous, but it has taken an awful long time,” he said.