RUC PROBE ENDED WITH HUMILIATING COURT CASE
RUC probe ended with humiliating court case
JONATHAN McCAMBRIDGE charts the flawed 10-year police investigation into the Omagh bomb massacre
Even for a police force hardened by decades of terrorist atrocities, the events of August 151998 presented a series of challenges and difficulties never before faced. The heroic efforts of RUC officers, who were first on the scene of carnage after the detonation of the Real IRA car bomb, can never be forgotten.
Police on duty on the tragic day moved crowds towards the huge car bomb on Market Street after an incorrect warning had been given about its location.
Constables Alan Palmer and James Morrell were on mobile duty when the warning was issued. Constable Palmer was walking down Market Street when the bomb exploded at 3.04pm. He was showered with glass and experienced a shooting pain in his back. The first thing he remembered seeing was another officer using a fire extinguisher on a person who was on fire.
His police statement recounted a woman sitting on a footpath whose thumb had been blown off and how he tried to help another woman but found part of her head had been severed.
A huge crater had been left in the middle of the road and Constable Palmer recalled seeing a man jumping into it, although it was full of water, to see if there were any bodies.
Constable Morrell said in his statement that he saw "injured and bodies littering the streets".
He added: "I saw a woman sitting in the middle of the wreckage. I saw that her right leg was blown apart around the knee area.
"The lower part of her right leg was still attached. There was not much blood as the flesh and bone looked to be partly cooked."
He attended a young boy who had suffered multiple injuries, including puncture wounds to his stomach. When Constable Morrell tried to speak to the boy he replied, "I Spanish, I Spanish." There was a group of Spanish students visiting Omagh that day and two were among the dead.
The public expectations and demands for justice were huge following the horrors of the Omagh bomb which occurred at a time of renewed optimism for peace in Northern Ireland. The RUC began its largest-ever investigation under the leadership of one of its most experienced detectives, Chief Superintendent Eric Anderson.
During the massive investigation, more than 2,000 people were interviewed and 3,000 statements taken. It was quickly established that a dissident republican cell based in Dundalk was responsible for the attack and more than 80 suspects were interviewed on both sides of the border. Police quickly established the names of the men they believed were the bombers.
However, despite the level of intelligence, gathering sufficient evidence to bring charges proved elusive. The inability of the RUC to bring anyone to court was brought into sharp context by the efforts of gardai, who launched their own investigation and brought charges.
Controversy continued to dog the RUC probe. The Omagh families became more vocal in their demands for justice and questions began to be asked about intelligence the RUC may have had before the bombing and also the role of Special Branch.
As the questions remained unanswered by March 2000 RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan launched an internal review of the police efforts. It made 274 recommendations and highlighted "serious and fundamental errors".
But by now the patience of the Omagh victims' families had expired. By August 2001, three full years after the atrocity, the new office of the Police Ombudsman began to review the police investigation.
Nuala O'Loan's subsequent report was so explosive and critical of the RUC that Ronnie Flanagan declared he would publicly commit suicide if he believed the findings to be accurate.
The Ombudsman accused top ranking police officers of failing the families of the 29 people who died.
Mrs O'Loan reported that the RUC had received two prior warnings - on August 4 and 12 1998 - about plans to attack Omagh. She said the judgment and leadership of the Chief Constable was "seriously flawed" and concluded that this meant that chances of detaining and convicting the bombers was seriously reduced. Special Branch officers were accused of failing to pass on information warning about dissident republican attacks.
The Ombudsman also asked for a new team of police officers from outside Northern Ireland be brought in to investigate the bombing.
The new Policing Board subsequently appointed Merseyside Deputy Chief Constable Mike Tonge to review the Omagh investigation. His subsequent report stated that previous mistakes made by police could be sorted out and he said it was still possible that the killers could be caught.
Armed with this renewed optimism the PSNI, which replaced the RUC in November 2001, set up a new investigation team.
This team painstakingly reviewed all the Omagh evidence and attempted to use cutting-edge forensic techniques to gather evidence against the killers.
In 2005 the investigation seemed to have secured a spectacular breakthrough. History was made in Craigavon Magistrate's Court when Sean Hoey, a south Armagh electrician, appeared charged with a litany of terrorist offences, including the 29 Omagh murders.
The hopes of the victims' families had been raised that a conviction may be near when the biggest mass murder trial in British legal history opened in Belfast Crown Court in September 2006.
However, it emerged almost from the beginning of the trial that the police and prosecution case against Hoey was weak and it was demolished by the able defence team led by London barrister Orlando Pownall.
To secure a conviction more than eight years after Northern Ireland's single worst terrorist atrocity was always going to be difficult, but a series of flaws in the prosecution evidence and police investigation were quickly exposed, making an acquittal inevitable.
Much of the case against Sean Hoey rested on the controversial new technology of Low Copy Number DNA testing.
Police scientists believed they found DNA matches, between Hoey and devices at Lisburn, Armagh police station, Blackwatertown and Altmore.
However, the DNA argument floundered in a wave of doubts over reliability of tests and fears of contamination. In 1998 the teams investigating Omagh and other Real IRA bombings could not have taken precautions for a scientific method which had not yet been invented. Thus the contamination argument became overwhelming.
The defence went further and attacked DNA evidence on the grounds that exhibits were tampered with. Moreover, the reliability of LCN DNA as an evidential tool was never accepted by court.
The shortcomings in the new police investigation into Omagh were also exposed. A series of allegations about the poor handling and interfering with evidence were presented to court.
A senior detective, Philip Marshall, who had investigated an attempted bombing at Alt-more Forest admitted that his approach to evidence was "slapdash" and that he had asked a colleague to "beef up" a witness
statement. Police were accused of interfering with witness evidence after separate versions of the same statement were produced, the latter emphasising that forensic precautions had been taken by police investigating the attempted bombing.
The defence accused police of a conspiracy to "bury" evidence in relation to explosive offences. Judge Mr Justice Weir described some of the police behaviour as "reprehensible".
Two officers are now the subject of a Police Ombudsman investigation.
After Hoey was acquitted of all charges the Policing Board launched yet another review of the Omagh investigation.
However, police and victims' relatives now openly concede that the chances of anybody ever being brought to justice now is minute.
Instead the Omagh families have been left to continue their civil case against the men they believe killed their loved ones.
That, and their hope for a cross-border public inquiry, are now their only hope of finding the truth.
JONATHAN McCAMBRIDGE charts the flawed 10-year police investigation into the Omagh bomb massacre
Even for a police force hardened by decades of terrorist atrocities, the events of August 151998 presented a series of challenges and difficulties never before faced. The heroic efforts of RUC officers, who were first on the scene of carnage after the detonation of the Real IRA car bomb, can never be forgotten.
Police on duty on the tragic day moved crowds towards the huge car bomb on Market Street after an incorrect warning had been given about its location.
Constables Alan Palmer and James Morrell were on mobile duty when the warning was issued. Constable Palmer was walking down Market Street when the bomb exploded at 3.04pm. He was showered with glass and experienced a shooting pain in his back. The first thing he remembered seeing was another officer using a fire extinguisher on a person who was on fire.
His police statement recounted a woman sitting on a footpath whose thumb had been blown off and how he tried to help another woman but found part of her head had been severed.
A huge crater had been left in the middle of the road and Constable Palmer recalled seeing a man jumping into it, although it was full of water, to see if there were any bodies.
Constable Morrell said in his statement that he saw "injured and bodies littering the streets".
He added: "I saw a woman sitting in the middle of the wreckage. I saw that her right leg was blown apart around the knee area.
"The lower part of her right leg was still attached. There was not much blood as the flesh and bone looked to be partly cooked."
He attended a young boy who had suffered multiple injuries, including puncture wounds to his stomach. When Constable Morrell tried to speak to the boy he replied, "I Spanish, I Spanish." There was a group of Spanish students visiting Omagh that day and two were among the dead.
The public expectations and demands for justice were huge following the horrors of the Omagh bomb which occurred at a time of renewed optimism for peace in Northern Ireland. The RUC began its largest-ever investigation under the leadership of one of its most experienced detectives, Chief Superintendent Eric Anderson.
During the massive investigation, more than 2,000 people were interviewed and 3,000 statements taken. It was quickly established that a dissident republican cell based in Dundalk was responsible for the attack and more than 80 suspects were interviewed on both sides of the border. Police quickly established the names of the men they believed were the bombers.
However, despite the level of intelligence, gathering sufficient evidence to bring charges proved elusive. The inability of the RUC to bring anyone to court was brought into sharp context by the efforts of gardai, who launched their own investigation and brought charges.
Controversy continued to dog the RUC probe. The Omagh families became more vocal in their demands for justice and questions began to be asked about intelligence the RUC may have had before the bombing and also the role of Special Branch.
As the questions remained unanswered by March 2000 RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan launched an internal review of the police efforts. It made 274 recommendations and highlighted "serious and fundamental errors".
But by now the patience of the Omagh victims' families had expired. By August 2001, three full years after the atrocity, the new office of the Police Ombudsman began to review the police investigation.
Nuala O'Loan's subsequent report was so explosive and critical of the RUC that Ronnie Flanagan declared he would publicly commit suicide if he believed the findings to be accurate.
The Ombudsman accused top ranking police officers of failing the families of the 29 people who died.
Mrs O'Loan reported that the RUC had received two prior warnings - on August 4 and 12 1998 - about plans to attack Omagh. She said the judgment and leadership of the Chief Constable was "seriously flawed" and concluded that this meant that chances of detaining and convicting the bombers was seriously reduced. Special Branch officers were accused of failing to pass on information warning about dissident republican attacks.
The Ombudsman also asked for a new team of police officers from outside Northern Ireland be brought in to investigate the bombing.
The new Policing Board subsequently appointed Merseyside Deputy Chief Constable Mike Tonge to review the Omagh investigation. His subsequent report stated that previous mistakes made by police could be sorted out and he said it was still possible that the killers could be caught.
Armed with this renewed optimism the PSNI, which replaced the RUC in November 2001, set up a new investigation team.
This team painstakingly reviewed all the Omagh evidence and attempted to use cutting-edge forensic techniques to gather evidence against the killers.
In 2005 the investigation seemed to have secured a spectacular breakthrough. History was made in Craigavon Magistrate's Court when Sean Hoey, a south Armagh electrician, appeared charged with a litany of terrorist offences, including the 29 Omagh murders.
The hopes of the victims' families had been raised that a conviction may be near when the biggest mass murder trial in British legal history opened in Belfast Crown Court in September 2006.
However, it emerged almost from the beginning of the trial that the police and prosecution case against Hoey was weak and it was demolished by the able defence team led by London barrister Orlando Pownall.
To secure a conviction more than eight years after Northern Ireland's single worst terrorist atrocity was always going to be difficult, but a series of flaws in the prosecution evidence and police investigation were quickly exposed, making an acquittal inevitable.
Much of the case against Sean Hoey rested on the controversial new technology of Low Copy Number DNA testing.
Police scientists believed they found DNA matches, between Hoey and devices at Lisburn, Armagh police station, Blackwatertown and Altmore.
However, the DNA argument floundered in a wave of doubts over reliability of tests and fears of contamination. In 1998 the teams investigating Omagh and other Real IRA bombings could not have taken precautions for a scientific method which had not yet been invented. Thus the contamination argument became overwhelming.
The defence went further and attacked DNA evidence on the grounds that exhibits were tampered with. Moreover, the reliability of LCN DNA as an evidential tool was never accepted by court.
The shortcomings in the new police investigation into Omagh were also exposed. A series of allegations about the poor handling and interfering with evidence were presented to court.
A senior detective, Philip Marshall, who had investigated an attempted bombing at Alt-more Forest admitted that his approach to evidence was "slapdash" and that he had asked a colleague to "beef up" a witness
statement. Police were accused of interfering with witness evidence after separate versions of the same statement were produced, the latter emphasising that forensic precautions had been taken by police investigating the attempted bombing.
The defence accused police of a conspiracy to "bury" evidence in relation to explosive offences. Judge Mr Justice Weir described some of the police behaviour as "reprehensible".
Two officers are now the subject of a Police Ombudsman investigation.
After Hoey was acquitted of all charges the Policing Board launched yet another review of the Omagh investigation.
However, police and victims' relatives now openly concede that the chances of anybody ever being brought to justice now is minute.
Instead the Omagh families have been left to continue their civil case against the men they believe killed their loved ones.
That, and their hope for a cross-border public inquiry, are now their only hope of finding the truth.
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT10An/24
Published Date: 15-Aug-08
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