IN/0805

Accused on trial 3 years after his arrest

SEAN HOEY finally went on trial yesterday accused of the Real IRA 1998 Omagh bomb massacre following a delay of three weeks, and three years after his initial arrest.
The electrician from Molly Road, Jonesborough, south Armagh appeared before Belfast Crown Court in what is the biggest murder trial in Irish legal history and is expected to be one of the last major non-jury paramilitary trials to be held in the north.
It is understood that the prosecution case mainly concerns DNA evidence allegedly uncovered from what is known as Low Copy Number DNA testing.
However, it is also known that further DNA tests, under a different procedure, were carried out on two specific items of evidence just prior to the case starting a fortnight ago.
In addition to the murders of the 29 people killed in the Omagh blast, including that of Avril Monaghan, whose unborn twins died with her, Hoey denies a multitude of other terrorist charges.
The 58 charges in total include six other murder conspiracies, five bombings, four bomb conspiracies, and possession of explosives including timer power units, mortar bombs and bombs.
The victims of the Omagh bombing on the afternoon of August 15 1998 were: Avril Ann Monaghan, her 18-month-old daughter Maura Teresa Monaghan and mother Mary Grimes; Frederick Thomas White and his son Bryan Albert White; Brenda Mary Logue; Gareth Neil Conway; Alan Radford; Lorraine Anne Wilson; Elizabeth Amelda Rush; Elizabeth Olive Hawkes; Ann Isobella McCombe; Philomena Alice Skelton; Oran Michael Doherty; Adrian Michael Gallagher; Jolene Briege Marlow; Esther Nora Gibson; Brian McCrory; Debra-Ann Cartwright; Julia Victoria Hughes; Sean Anthony McLaughlin; James Victor Barker; Samantha McFarland; Breda Catherine Devine; Veda Elizabeth Short; Geraldine Breslin; John Joseph McGrath; and Spanish tourists Rocio Abad Ramos (23) and 12-year-old Fernando Blasco Baselga, who were on a day-trip from Co Donegal to the Co Tyrone town.
Hoey denies their murders and causing the bombing and possessing explosives, namely a timer power unit, between March 3 1997 and August 16 1998.
The six murder conspiracies against members of the security forces were allegedly planned for Blackwaterstown Road, Armagh between May 19 and July 11 1998; Altmore Forest near Dungannon between April 10 and 13 2001; the G30 military base, Crossmaglen and Forkhill RUC/army base, both on March 24 1998; Belleek RUC Station on May 9 1998; and Newry RUC Station on July 21 1998.
Hoey also denies possessing bomb timer power units and causing mortar bomb explosions at Crossmaglen, Forkhill, Belleek and Newry RUC stations.
He is also accused of causing explosions at Banbridge on August 1 1998 and Finaghy halt railway station in south Belfast on May 24 1998 and with conspiring to cause explosions and possession of explosives at Blackwaterstown Road, Armagh and at Market Street, Lisburn between March 11 and May 1 1998, and Newry Courthouse between March 3 and July 14 1998.
As the 36-year-old sat impassively in the dock yesterday, dressed in a beige jacket, striped shirt and denims, relatives of Omagh victims wept quietly in the public gallery.
Mr Kerr said the case arose from a series of bomb attacks and attempted bombings during 1998, "which the prosecution say were part of a violent campaign conducted by dissident republicans who had not accepted the cessation of the terror campaign leading up to and following the Good Friday Agreement".
He said the prosecution would show that a number of the devices used could be connected not only by the manner of their construction and materials used but also by fibre and DNA evidence.
Mr Kerr said forensic evidence on the timer power units - referred to as Mark 19 units - and fibre evidence would persuade the court "of the intimate connection between this series of devices which included the horrific explosion which took place on August 15 1998".
"Even those who escaped physical harm [in Omagh] suffered severe and lasting trauma as a result of the incident," he said.
"The prosecution will say that both DNA evidence and fibre evidence connecting the defendant to this series of attacks will show his involvement in them and that the totality of the evidence will persuade the court of his criminal involvement in the connected series of explosions."
Mr Kerr then detailed 12 incidents involving explosive devices, beginning with a mortar-bomb attack on a British army tower in Crossmaglen in March 1998, before coming to detail the horrific events shortly after 3pm on Saturday August 15 in Omagh.
Mr Kerr claimed the bombers had meant to kill, with three telephoned warnings, including one to the media using the previously used codeword 'Martha Pope', being useless to avoid injury.
"It will be the prosecution case that the warnings given were wrong and so lacking in detail as to be meaningless," he said.
He added that "in fact it will be submitted that it's proper to infer that the warnings as given were such as to make it inevitable that any evacuation" was to the very area of the parked car bomb.
Mr Kerr said that to help the court to draw such an inference it could compare warnings given for other town centre car bombs, in particular Lisburn and Banbridge.
He said in both cases the targets and the type of car used were clearly identified but this was not the case in Omagh.
Mr Kerr told the court it was the prosecution case "that if the bombers genuinely wished to avoid the certain deaths and injury which they knew would occur by placing a large car bomb on a busy shopping street they could easily have given a description of the vehicle and an accurate description of its location as they had been done by them before".
"In fact they did neither," he said.
The bomb was contained in a maroon Vauxhall Cavalier car fitted with false number plates, stolen two days earlier, with wood placed under the suspension to disguise it's deadly cargo in the boot.
Various witnesses described two men getting out of the front of the car, with one even catching the eye of one woman who told police he appeared to "grin" at her.
Fortunately for her, her mother returned to her car, parked directly behind the car bomb, and drove home.
Mr Kerr claimed that DNA matches with the defendant were found on a number of places on a number of the devices which could also be linked with fibre evidence.
The lawyer concluded his two-hour opening by declaring: "Hoey was an active participant in a series of explosions which are the subject matter of the charges.
"His involvement was such that he was fully aware that the persons concerned were placing explosives and had an active role in the preparation of the devices.
"The evidence connects him to devices used against both security forces and civilians."
Mr Kerr said the evidence also suggested that Hoey contemplated bombs being used "in such a way that injury up to and including
death would occur and agreed to that".
He added that in the case of Omagh that those who placed the bomb on the busy prime shopping street must have known it "would kill or at the least seriously injure".
The prosecuting lawyer said in such circumstances it was their case that "those responsible at law for the bomb in Omagh should properly be found guilty of murder in relation to the persons who were killed on August 15 1998".
Following the opening, Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Adrian, known as Aidan, was killed in the atrocity, said it had been "an extremely difficult morning".
He said the last time the families had heard details of how their loved ones died was during the inquest.
Mr Gallagher said "no matter how many times you hear it, it was the last time life went out of our loved ones and that will never be easy".

Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS

Ref: IN/0805

Published Date: 26-Sep-06