BT/1076

Historic Omagh case opens
Chief Reporter CHRIS THORNTON watched as history was made in the High Court with victims' families launching a civil case against the men they believe bombed Omagh

THE background noise of a trial - the soft scratching of pens, the discreet coughs, the rustle of paper - stopped once. The high-tech additions to the wood-panelled courtroom known as Queen's Bench 2 flashed up the photograph showing Omagh's last moment of safety.
Two Spanish tourists stand in the middle of Market Street, the younger one on the man's shoulders. On its own, it is an unremarkable snapshot. But over the past decade it has taken on a horrible air, because it was found in a camera lying in the wreckage of the town and it shows the bomb that was ticking down towards carnage.
The red Vauxhall Cavalier contained 500lbs of explosive, and was minutes away from extinguishing the lives of 29 adults and children and unborn twins. The glimpse of that car is also the first strand in a long tangle of evidence that, six victims' families say, shows five republicans from the border region should forfeit millions of pounds - because they bombed Omagh. Lord Brennan QC stood at a lectern in QB2 shortly after 10.30 yesterday morning and, in a soft growl, broke new legal ground.
The civil action brought by the Omagh families, he said, was unprecedented in UK law, possibly in the world.
"For the first time private citizens are confronting terrorists in the High Court," he said.
"The Real IRA and its members could never have contemplated that civilians could bring a civil action against terrorists.
"For them, it was never part of the scheme of things. It is now."
Nor was the court action merely symbolic, designed to apportion blame where criminal cases had failed. This is a case of "private grief coupled with public outrage" that demands exemplary damages, Lord Brennan told the court.
"Any damages will be enforced relentlessly," the families' barrister told the court.
He quoted one of his clients who said that if the case is "successful and damages are pursued then the result will be that every terrorist and terrorist family will have to live in fear of their essential belongings - house, car, valuable possessions - everything will be taken from them."
The families are seeking damages in the region of £14 million, and the crowd in the courtroom - a jumble of files, note-taking lawyers and barristers' wigs - testified to the stakes of the case.
No criminal case over the Omagh bombing has yet stuck against a defendant, but the rules are different in the High Court. Instead of proving the accusation beyond all reasonable doubt, the families will simply have to show that "on the balance of probabilities" the defendants were responsible for mass murder.
The landmark case began in fairly ordinary legal circumstances - a testy exchange between lawyers. Less than 20 minutes into his opening statement, Lord Brennan began reciting the convictions of the five defendants, describing them all as convicted terrorists.
This brought objections from the lawyers of the four defendants who are legally represented, arguing variously that the convictions were not relevant, should not be aired in public and would be given undue prominence by the media.
Michael O'Higgins SC, who represents convicted Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt told the court: "I object to the description of my client as a terrorist." He said it was an "utterly pejorative term."
The court heard earlier Mr McKevitt will be allowed to view the proceedings through a video link to Portlaoise Prison, where he is serving a sentence for directing terrorism.
Lord Brennan said he was "reciting what is publicly known about these defendants. That is what I've done and will continue to do."
He said that as a former chairman of the Bar in England and Wales, he has "no need for lecturers about what is relevant", and considered the objections as a "deliberate attempt to frustrate the opening of the case".
Mr Justice Morgan smoothed over the exchange, reminding everyone that the matter will be decided on the evidence alone.
The shelves of files on either side of the court room stood in mute support of the judge's observation. Their detail - mobile phone records, the evidence of an FBI informer, an account of an MI5 sting operation - will be telling.
Lord Brennan briefly rehearsed the contents of that evidence, including the awful effects of the bomb.