JUDGE CLEARS HOEY OF RIRA ATROCITY
Judge Clears Hoey of RIRA atrocity
In a judgment highly critical of the evidence provided by police and the prosecution case, Sean Hoey was acquitted of involvement in the bombing
SEAN Gerard Hoey, the man accused of the Real IRA bombing of Omagh, the single worst terrorist atrocity in Northern Ireland, has been cleared of the outrage and a catalogue of other terrorist charges against him.
The verdict was met by some in the packed public gallery of Belfast Crown Court with cheers and clapping, while others remained silent and unmoved as did Hoey as he stood in the dock.
The acquittal by Mr Justice Weir comes fours years, two months, three weeks and five days after the initial arrest of the 38-year-old south Armagh electrician and just over 11 months after his trial ended in January.
In a judgment which was highly critical of the prosecution case, Mr Justice Weir acquitted Hoey, of Molly's Road, Jonesborough, of all 58 charges he faced including the murder of the 29 people who perished in the Real IRA bombing of Omagh on August 15 1998.
At the end of his 24-page judgment, which took an hour-and-a-half to read, the judge accepted that those bereaved and injured by the Omagh bomb wanted to see convictions - but that convictions could only be made where there was evidence to support them.
"I am acutely aware that the stricken people of Omagh and every other right-thinking member of the Northern Ireland community would very much wish to see whoever was responsible for the outrageous events of August 1998 and the other serious crimes in this series of terrorist incidents convicted and punished for their crimes according to the law," Mr Justice Weir said.
However, he added that he must "also bear in mind the cardinal principle of the criminal law", and then quoting direct from a Court of Appeal judgment added: "Justice, 'according to law', demands proper evidence. By that we mean not merely evidence which might be true and to a considerable extent probably true, but, as the learned trial judge put it, 'evidence which is so convincing in truth and manifestly reliable that it reaches the standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt'."
In the case against Hoey, Mr Justice Weir said, "the evidence against the accused in this case did not reach that immutable standard".
"Accordingly I find Mr Hoey not guilty of each of the remaining counts on the indictment," he said.
Mr Justice Weir began his judgment by outlining the case against Hoey, which arose from 13 separate incidents beginning on March 24 1998 and included "the infamous car bomb explosion that destroyed much of the shopping centre of Omagh on the afternoon of Saturday August 15 1998".
He said that bombing had the "appalling consequences that 29 members of the public, including a lady pregnant with twins which did not survive, were killed and hundreds of others were injured, many gravely, leaving permanent and widespread physical and psychological scars".
The explosion, the judge said, "was among the worst" and as the prosecution contended, "there seems little doubt that those responsible for all these incidents were so-called republicans who did not accept the implications of the Good Friday Agreement for the continuation of their terrorist campaign".
As the packed public gallery listened the judge set out "the nature of the prosecution case", which relied upon "a number of strands that taken together lead to the conclusion that the accused" was guilty as charged.
Those three strands of evidence included the examination of the so-called 'mark 19' timer power units to detonate the devices, fibre evidence and finally the DNA evidence based on the controversial Low Copy Number (LCN) technique for obtaining DNA samples from evidence.
As Mr Justice Weir reviewed, and ultimately demolished each of the strands, he was at pains to acknowledge the "lengthy, painstaking and comprehensive" way in which the varying tests were carried out.
However, at the end of each review the judge came to the same conclusion - that he was "not satisfied either beyond a reasonable doubt or indeed to any acceptable standard".
However, Mr Justice Weir's most scathing attack on the Crown case came as he reviewed what he called "Prosecution strand 3 - the DNA evidence".
The judge said this strand required an examination of a number of distinct but closely related topics as the DNA evidence obtained depended upon the collection, preservation and movement of various exhibits from incidents at Lisburn, Armagh, Blackwatertown Road and Altmore Forest, by a number of agencies.
Mr Justice Weir said that the defence focused on those areas of collection, preservation and movements of exhibits "and carried out a commendably far reaching and thorough examination" on this aspect of the case.
The LCN DNA technique, which relies on tiny amounts of material, needed "especially stringent measures" to be taken to avoid the contamination of the various samples.
However, Mr Justice Weir found that such "stringent measures" had not been taken.
"They [the defence] contend, and I accept the contention, that the court must be satisfied by the prosecution witnesses and supporting documents that all dealings with each relevant exhibit have been satisfactorily accounted for from the moment of its seizure until the moment when any evidential sample relied upon by the prosecution is taken from it and that by a method and in conditions that are shown to have been reliable," he said.
None of this occurred in this case as was obvious from Mr Justice Weir's review of "examples of problems in recovery, packing, storage and transmission of items".
However, Mr Justice Weir said that the most disturbing situation exposed by the defence came from the incident at Altmore Forest in Dungannon.
Here the judge said the defence was right in its contention that police witnesses, Fiona Cooper and Detective Chief Inspector Marshall, were guilty of "beefing up" their evidence.
Mr Justice Weir said that he had been left in the position of not knowing what to believe from their evidence, if anything.
So concerned was he that he had reported the matter to the Police Ombudsman.
"The effect of this, as I find deliberate and calculated , deception in which others I concerned in the investigation and preparation of this case for trial beyond these two witnesses may also have played a part, is to make it impossible for me to accept any of the evidence of either witness since I have no means of knowing whether they may have told lies about other aspects of the case that were not capable of being exposed as such," Mr Justice Weir said.
On the LCN DNA evidence itself Mr Justice Weir was just as dismissive, saying that he was "not in the least satisfied" with it and that "accordingly I find that the DNA evidence, the third and final strand remaining in the prosecution case, cannot satisfy me either beyond a reasonable doubt or to any acceptable standard".
Mr Justice Weir said that given his conclusions on each of the three strands of the prosecution case, it was not necessary for him to get involved in the debate over the reliability of LCN DNA.
He was however concerned "at the wide variance in expert opinions, not only as between the prosecution and defence but also between the two experts called for the prosecution".
Despite claims that the technique had been "validated" by the international scientific community, this appeared not to be the case.
Mr Justice Weir said he was concerned about how the forensic science service in Birmingham responded to the defence criticisms.
He said that Dr Whitaker "was most unwilling" to accept that the continued absence of international acceptance of the technique had any bearing on the probative weight the judge could put on the evidence.
The judge said the evidence given by forensic science service witnesses "reinforces in the clearest possible way" the need for the urgent validation of the LCN DNA technique by the government and the wider scientific community.
In a judgment highly critical of the evidence provided by police and the prosecution case, Sean Hoey was acquitted of involvement in the bombing
SEAN Gerard Hoey, the man accused of the Real IRA bombing of Omagh, the single worst terrorist atrocity in Northern Ireland, has been cleared of the outrage and a catalogue of other terrorist charges against him.
The verdict was met by some in the packed public gallery of Belfast Crown Court with cheers and clapping, while others remained silent and unmoved as did Hoey as he stood in the dock.
The acquittal by Mr Justice Weir comes fours years, two months, three weeks and five days after the initial arrest of the 38-year-old south Armagh electrician and just over 11 months after his trial ended in January.
In a judgment which was highly critical of the prosecution case, Mr Justice Weir acquitted Hoey, of Molly's Road, Jonesborough, of all 58 charges he faced including the murder of the 29 people who perished in the Real IRA bombing of Omagh on August 15 1998.
At the end of his 24-page judgment, which took an hour-and-a-half to read, the judge accepted that those bereaved and injured by the Omagh bomb wanted to see convictions - but that convictions could only be made where there was evidence to support them.
"I am acutely aware that the stricken people of Omagh and every other right-thinking member of the Northern Ireland community would very much wish to see whoever was responsible for the outrageous events of August 1998 and the other serious crimes in this series of terrorist incidents convicted and punished for their crimes according to the law," Mr Justice Weir said.
However, he added that he must "also bear in mind the cardinal principle of the criminal law", and then quoting direct from a Court of Appeal judgment added: "Justice, 'according to law', demands proper evidence. By that we mean not merely evidence which might be true and to a considerable extent probably true, but, as the learned trial judge put it, 'evidence which is so convincing in truth and manifestly reliable that it reaches the standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt'."
In the case against Hoey, Mr Justice Weir said, "the evidence against the accused in this case did not reach that immutable standard".
"Accordingly I find Mr Hoey not guilty of each of the remaining counts on the indictment," he said.
Mr Justice Weir began his judgment by outlining the case against Hoey, which arose from 13 separate incidents beginning on March 24 1998 and included "the infamous car bomb explosion that destroyed much of the shopping centre of Omagh on the afternoon of Saturday August 15 1998".
He said that bombing had the "appalling consequences that 29 members of the public, including a lady pregnant with twins which did not survive, were killed and hundreds of others were injured, many gravely, leaving permanent and widespread physical and psychological scars".
The explosion, the judge said, "was among the worst" and as the prosecution contended, "there seems little doubt that those responsible for all these incidents were so-called republicans who did not accept the implications of the Good Friday Agreement for the continuation of their terrorist campaign".
As the packed public gallery listened the judge set out "the nature of the prosecution case", which relied upon "a number of strands that taken together lead to the conclusion that the accused" was guilty as charged.
Those three strands of evidence included the examination of the so-called 'mark 19' timer power units to detonate the devices, fibre evidence and finally the DNA evidence based on the controversial Low Copy Number (LCN) technique for obtaining DNA samples from evidence.
As Mr Justice Weir reviewed, and ultimately demolished each of the strands, he was at pains to acknowledge the "lengthy, painstaking and comprehensive" way in which the varying tests were carried out.
However, at the end of each review the judge came to the same conclusion - that he was "not satisfied either beyond a reasonable doubt or indeed to any acceptable standard".
However, Mr Justice Weir's most scathing attack on the Crown case came as he reviewed what he called "Prosecution strand 3 - the DNA evidence".
The judge said this strand required an examination of a number of distinct but closely related topics as the DNA evidence obtained depended upon the collection, preservation and movement of various exhibits from incidents at Lisburn, Armagh, Blackwatertown Road and Altmore Forest, by a number of agencies.
Mr Justice Weir said that the defence focused on those areas of collection, preservation and movements of exhibits "and carried out a commendably far reaching and thorough examination" on this aspect of the case.
The LCN DNA technique, which relies on tiny amounts of material, needed "especially stringent measures" to be taken to avoid the contamination of the various samples.
However, Mr Justice Weir found that such "stringent measures" had not been taken.
"They [the defence] contend, and I accept the contention, that the court must be satisfied by the prosecution witnesses and supporting documents that all dealings with each relevant exhibit have been satisfactorily accounted for from the moment of its seizure until the moment when any evidential sample relied upon by the prosecution is taken from it and that by a method and in conditions that are shown to have been reliable," he said.
None of this occurred in this case as was obvious from Mr Justice Weir's review of "examples of problems in recovery, packing, storage and transmission of items".
However, Mr Justice Weir said that the most disturbing situation exposed by the defence came from the incident at Altmore Forest in Dungannon.
Here the judge said the defence was right in its contention that police witnesses, Fiona Cooper and Detective Chief Inspector Marshall, were guilty of "beefing up" their evidence.
Mr Justice Weir said that he had been left in the position of not knowing what to believe from their evidence, if anything.
So concerned was he that he had reported the matter to the Police Ombudsman.
"The effect of this, as I find deliberate and calculated , deception in which others I concerned in the investigation and preparation of this case for trial beyond these two witnesses may also have played a part, is to make it impossible for me to accept any of the evidence of either witness since I have no means of knowing whether they may have told lies about other aspects of the case that were not capable of being exposed as such," Mr Justice Weir said.
On the LCN DNA evidence itself Mr Justice Weir was just as dismissive, saying that he was "not in the least satisfied" with it and that "accordingly I find that the DNA evidence, the third and final strand remaining in the prosecution case, cannot satisfy me either beyond a reasonable doubt or to any acceptable standard".
Mr Justice Weir said that given his conclusions on each of the three strands of the prosecution case, it was not necessary for him to get involved in the debate over the reliability of LCN DNA.
He was however concerned "at the wide variance in expert opinions, not only as between the prosecution and defence but also between the two experts called for the prosecution".
Despite claims that the technique had been "validated" by the international scientific community, this appeared not to be the case.
Mr Justice Weir said he was concerned about how the forensic science service in Birmingham responded to the defence criticisms.
He said that Dr Whitaker "was most unwilling" to accept that the continued absence of international acceptance of the technique had any bearing on the probative weight the judge could put on the evidence.
The judge said the evidence given by forensic science service witnesses "reinforces in the clearest possible way" the need for the urgent validation of the LCN DNA technique by the government and the wider scientific community.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0865
Published Date: 21-Dec-07
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