OFFICERS TELL OMAGH BOMB TRIAL OF 'HORRIFIC SCENES OF CARNAGE'
Officers tell Omagh bomb trial of 'horrific scenes of carnage'
FORMER RUC officers on duty in Omagh the day a Real IRA bomb ripped through the centre of the Co Tyrone town have described the horrific scenes of carnage as people lay dead and dying in the street.
The bomb, which claimed the lives of 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins, exploded in the Market Street area of the town at around 3pm on August 15 1998.
Officers who attended the scene - some of whom sustained injuries - told Belfast Crown Court of the terrible wounds of those caught in the bomb blast.
One officer recalled how he saw a man with ginger hair lying face up in the middle of the street.
Gary McClatchey said: "He was motionless and appeared to be dead. A huge piece of his face was missing and half his jaw was gone".
Another officer said he saw "injured and bodies littering the street."
James Morrell described how he saw a young boy lying on the road with puncture wounds to his stomach and body and burns to his head.
The court heard that after Constable Morrell asked the injured boy his name, the youngster replied: "I Spanish, I Spanish."
The officer also recalled that he saw a woman sitting on the pavement whose right leg had been "blown apart at the knee ... with the flesh and bone partially cooked."
South Armagh electrician Sean Hoey (37), from Molly Road in Jonesborough, is charged with 58 terrorist offences relating not only to the Omagh bombing but to six other murder conspiracies. He denies all charges.
He sat seemingly impassively in the dock as a succession of officers gave graphic details from the Omagh bomb.
Mr Justice Weir was told that a bomb warning was received at around 2.30pm, claiming a device had been left outside the courthouse in the town.
As cordons were set up, police unwittingly ushered shoppers away from the courthouse and into the path of the massive 5001b car bomb which exploded on a packed Market Street at around 3pm.
Constable Norman Haslett aid that when he heard about the bomb warning, he was told the caller used the same code word as was used two weeks before when a car bomb exploded in Banbridge. He realised the warning "should not be taken lightly and was the real thing".
Alan Palmer, who received a back wound which required 27 stitches, described the pandemonium following the blast.
The constable recalled how he saw a man jump into the crater left by the bomb in a bid to find a child missing from a buggy lying in the middle of the street.
He also said that after arriving with other casualties at the Tyrone County Hospital, the A&E was so full that they had to divert to the Erne Hospital in Enniskillen.
Other officers, including Sergeant Philip Marshall, told the court how the bodies of the dead were placed in an alleyway known as Market Entry.
Constable Mark Benson recalled how officers formed a line across the street in a bid to locate casualties but that "there were no more -just the dead".
Reading from a statement made by Captain Samuel Potter, a doctor with the Royal Irish Regiment, crown counsel Gordon Kerr QC said the medic had gone along the line of bodies, pronouncing life extinct.
That, Mr Kerr revealed, took the doctor 40 minutes in a scene he described as "just chaos and horrific".
Hoey denies all charges against him.
The trial continues.
FORMER RUC officers on duty in Omagh the day a Real IRA bomb ripped through the centre of the Co Tyrone town have described the horrific scenes of carnage as people lay dead and dying in the street.
The bomb, which claimed the lives of 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins, exploded in the Market Street area of the town at around 3pm on August 15 1998.
Officers who attended the scene - some of whom sustained injuries - told Belfast Crown Court of the terrible wounds of those caught in the bomb blast.
One officer recalled how he saw a man with ginger hair lying face up in the middle of the street.
Gary McClatchey said: "He was motionless and appeared to be dead. A huge piece of his face was missing and half his jaw was gone".
Another officer said he saw "injured and bodies littering the street."
James Morrell described how he saw a young boy lying on the road with puncture wounds to his stomach and body and burns to his head.
The court heard that after Constable Morrell asked the injured boy his name, the youngster replied: "I Spanish, I Spanish."
The officer also recalled that he saw a woman sitting on the pavement whose right leg had been "blown apart at the knee ... with the flesh and bone partially cooked."
South Armagh electrician Sean Hoey (37), from Molly Road in Jonesborough, is charged with 58 terrorist offences relating not only to the Omagh bombing but to six other murder conspiracies. He denies all charges.
He sat seemingly impassively in the dock as a succession of officers gave graphic details from the Omagh bomb.
Mr Justice Weir was told that a bomb warning was received at around 2.30pm, claiming a device had been left outside the courthouse in the town.
As cordons were set up, police unwittingly ushered shoppers away from the courthouse and into the path of the massive 5001b car bomb which exploded on a packed Market Street at around 3pm.
Constable Norman Haslett aid that when he heard about the bomb warning, he was told the caller used the same code word as was used two weeks before when a car bomb exploded in Banbridge. He realised the warning "should not be taken lightly and was the real thing".
Alan Palmer, who received a back wound which required 27 stitches, described the pandemonium following the blast.
The constable recalled how he saw a man jump into the crater left by the bomb in a bid to find a child missing from a buggy lying in the middle of the street.
He also said that after arriving with other casualties at the Tyrone County Hospital, the A&E was so full that they had to divert to the Erne Hospital in Enniskillen.
Other officers, including Sergeant Philip Marshall, told the court how the bodies of the dead were placed in an alleyway known as Market Entry.
Constable Mark Benson recalled how officers formed a line across the street in a bid to locate casualties but that "there were no more -just the dead".
Reading from a statement made by Captain Samuel Potter, a doctor with the Royal Irish Regiment, crown counsel Gordon Kerr QC said the medic had gone along the line of bodies, pronouncing life extinct.
That, Mr Kerr revealed, took the doctor 40 minutes in a scene he described as "just chaos and horrific".
Hoey denies all charges against him.
The trial continues.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0808
Published Date: 06-Oct-06
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