EVIDENCE OF PROSECUTION 'UNRELIABLE'
Evidence of prosecution 'unreliable'
THE defence team for south Armagh man Sean Hoey continued their onslaught on the prosecution case against him yesterday for the second day running.
Defence QC Orland Pownall told Belfast Crown Court that the evidence presented by the prosecution was unreliable, insufficient and full of shortcomings and witnesses had lied in some instances.
Hoey (37), who is from Molly Road in Jonesborough, faces 58 counts, including the murder of the 29 people killed in the Omagh bombing as well as other bomb, mortar and hoax bomb attacks carried out throughout the north during 1998.
The prosecution claim that Hoey manufactured the timer power units used in the various mortars and bombs including that used to detonate the Omagh bomb.
Mr Pownall told trial judge Mr Justice Weir that the prosecution had failed to show that these units had been made by a single person, let alone Sean Hoey.
Mr Pownall contended it was of "paramount importance there is no evidence of how good, bad or indifferent Sean Hoey is at soldering or how Sean Hoey connects wires to equipment".
The lawyer said that this "demonstrates another shortcoming in the Crown's case".
Mr Pownall argued that since it cannot be established the devices had been "made by one person, still less that that person was Sean Hoey", then all of the charges not relying on DNA evidence must "fall by the wayside".
Even if the defence was wrong on this point, the Crown had still failed to establish Hoey's guilt on any of the murder charges, he said.
Mr Pownall said the prosecution had failed to say when or where the devices had been constructed.
He said there was "the real possibility that these devices were constructed at a time when it was intended that their use was by the Provisional IRA and not some dissident group".
Turning to the various exhibits, the lawyer said that "what the court has heard demonstrated at the very least the potential for contamination" with Hoey's DNA.
He said the authorities had displayed "a lax approach to exhibits and their storage" and said it was for the Crown to establish each exhibit's integrity between its seizure and its forensic examination.
Given the "wholesale lack of care taken by the police, the lab and scene-of-crime officers" it was for the prosecution "to prove that the opportunity did not exist for contamination" of the exhibits, he said.
Mr Pownall is expected to conclude his submissions on Monday morning.
Prosecuting QC Gordon Kerr will then argue there is enough evidence for the trial to continue.
THE defence team for south Armagh man Sean Hoey continued their onslaught on the prosecution case against him yesterday for the second day running.
Defence QC Orland Pownall told Belfast Crown Court that the evidence presented by the prosecution was unreliable, insufficient and full of shortcomings and witnesses had lied in some instances.
Hoey (37), who is from Molly Road in Jonesborough, faces 58 counts, including the murder of the 29 people killed in the Omagh bombing as well as other bomb, mortar and hoax bomb attacks carried out throughout the north during 1998.
The prosecution claim that Hoey manufactured the timer power units used in the various mortars and bombs including that used to detonate the Omagh bomb.
Mr Pownall told trial judge Mr Justice Weir that the prosecution had failed to show that these units had been made by a single person, let alone Sean Hoey.
Mr Pownall contended it was of "paramount importance there is no evidence of how good, bad or indifferent Sean Hoey is at soldering or how Sean Hoey connects wires to equipment".
The lawyer said that this "demonstrates another shortcoming in the Crown's case".
Mr Pownall argued that since it cannot be established the devices had been "made by one person, still less that that person was Sean Hoey", then all of the charges not relying on DNA evidence must "fall by the wayside".
Even if the defence was wrong on this point, the Crown had still failed to establish Hoey's guilt on any of the murder charges, he said.
Mr Pownall said the prosecution had failed to say when or where the devices had been constructed.
He said there was "the real possibility that these devices were constructed at a time when it was intended that their use was by the Provisional IRA and not some dissident group".
Turning to the various exhibits, the lawyer said that "what the court has heard demonstrated at the very least the potential for contamination" with Hoey's DNA.
He said the authorities had displayed "a lax approach to exhibits and their storage" and said it was for the Crown to establish each exhibit's integrity between its seizure and its forensic examination.
Given the "wholesale lack of care taken by the police, the lab and scene-of-crime officers" it was for the prosecution "to prove that the opportunity did not exist for contamination" of the exhibits, he said.
Mr Pownall is expected to conclude his submissions on Monday morning.
Prosecuting QC Gordon Kerr will then argue there is enough evidence for the trial to continue.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0824
Published Date: 16-Dec-06
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