DODGY DNA TESTS, BOTCHED EVIDENCE AND ALTERED STATEMENTS
Dodgy DNA tests, botched evidence and altered statements
By Barry McCaffrey
IT IS more than four years It since south Armagh electrician Sean Hoey (38) was charged with making the Real IRA bomb that killed 29 people, including a mother pregnant with twins.
The attack caused the single biggest loss of life of the Troubles.
When his trial opened in September last year Hoey - who is now the longest-serving remand prisoner in Northern Ireland penal history - faced 58 charges of involvement in a series of dissident republican attacks between 1998 and 2001.
During 56 days of evidence the non-jury trial heard from dozens of witnesses and saw nearly 500 exhibits.
The prosecution case argued that forensic evidence would show that Hoey was not only involved in making timers for a series of bombs but had also wired up the devices. Prosecution lawyers highlighted the fact that Hoey refused to enter the witness box during the trial. Crucially, much of the prosecution case relied on a controversial form of forensic testing, known as Low Copy Number (LCN) DNA profiling.
LCN is a magnified form of normal DNA testing that critics argue cannot be relied upon because results are distorted by amplification. Doubt was cast over its credibility during the trial when it was shown that LCN DNA had identified a 14-year-old English schoolboy as the bomb-maker who had built an unexploded device that had been found in Lisburn city centre in 1998. In November 2006 the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) wrote to chief constables in England and Wales advising them that it was ordering the retesting of more than 2,000 cases involving LCN DNA after serious concerns were raised over inaccurate test results. However, details of the reinvestigations did not emerge until after the Omagh trial had ended and could not be introduced by Hoey's defence.
The trial also heard about a series of failures to protect evidence stored at forensic science headquarters in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim. A British army bomb disposal expert told the trial that one unexploded device recovered from a bomb scene may have been "forensically altered" after black tape mysteriously appeared on a bomb timer unit after it had been sent for analysis in England. The court was told the tape had not been present when the device was originally photographed at the bomb scene or when it had been examined in Northern Ireland. Mr Justice Weir described the tape's appearance as "Houdini-like". Another forensic scientist admitted that evidence in the Omagh trial had been missing for five years while labels on material from one bomb scene appeared to have been altered without any explanation. During the trial it was also revealed that the former Forensic Science Northern Ireland (FSNI) chief executive Dr Richard Adams had expressed concerns that his fingerprints may be found on the Omagh bomb. Dr Adams wrote to a colleague that he and other unnamed officials had been shown a "bit of TPU box" used in Omagh and while he could not remember "touching anything" he added "but who knows?" An FSNI official admitted that the incident had shown a "casual approach" to protecting the integrity of forensic evidence in its care. However, the most serious threat to the prosecution case came when two police officers admitted that superiors had encouraged them to "beef up" witness statements.
Detective Chief Inspector Philip Graham Marshall admitted asking scenes-of-crime officer Fiona Cooper to change her witness statement relating to the discovery of a mortar bomb at Altmore Forest near Dungannon in 2001.
Ms Cooper admitted that Mr Marshall had asked her to add details to her original statement, about which she had no memory or notes. She told the court that a second witness statement in her name could not have been written by her as she had been in Zambia at the time it was allegedly written and dated.
Mr Marshall claimed he had been asked to "beef up" Ms Cooper's statement by an unnamed officer from the Omagh investigation team. The court was told that the police officers' original witness statements had also gone missing. Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan was subsequently asked to investigate the circumstances surrounding the statements and the disappearance of the original notes.
By Barry McCaffrey
IT IS more than four years It since south Armagh electrician Sean Hoey (38) was charged with making the Real IRA bomb that killed 29 people, including a mother pregnant with twins.
The attack caused the single biggest loss of life of the Troubles.
When his trial opened in September last year Hoey - who is now the longest-serving remand prisoner in Northern Ireland penal history - faced 58 charges of involvement in a series of dissident republican attacks between 1998 and 2001.
During 56 days of evidence the non-jury trial heard from dozens of witnesses and saw nearly 500 exhibits.
The prosecution case argued that forensic evidence would show that Hoey was not only involved in making timers for a series of bombs but had also wired up the devices. Prosecution lawyers highlighted the fact that Hoey refused to enter the witness box during the trial. Crucially, much of the prosecution case relied on a controversial form of forensic testing, known as Low Copy Number (LCN) DNA profiling.
LCN is a magnified form of normal DNA testing that critics argue cannot be relied upon because results are distorted by amplification. Doubt was cast over its credibility during the trial when it was shown that LCN DNA had identified a 14-year-old English schoolboy as the bomb-maker who had built an unexploded device that had been found in Lisburn city centre in 1998. In November 2006 the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) wrote to chief constables in England and Wales advising them that it was ordering the retesting of more than 2,000 cases involving LCN DNA after serious concerns were raised over inaccurate test results. However, details of the reinvestigations did not emerge until after the Omagh trial had ended and could not be introduced by Hoey's defence.
The trial also heard about a series of failures to protect evidence stored at forensic science headquarters in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim. A British army bomb disposal expert told the trial that one unexploded device recovered from a bomb scene may have been "forensically altered" after black tape mysteriously appeared on a bomb timer unit after it had been sent for analysis in England. The court was told the tape had not been present when the device was originally photographed at the bomb scene or when it had been examined in Northern Ireland. Mr Justice Weir described the tape's appearance as "Houdini-like". Another forensic scientist admitted that evidence in the Omagh trial had been missing for five years while labels on material from one bomb scene appeared to have been altered without any explanation. During the trial it was also revealed that the former Forensic Science Northern Ireland (FSNI) chief executive Dr Richard Adams had expressed concerns that his fingerprints may be found on the Omagh bomb. Dr Adams wrote to a colleague that he and other unnamed officials had been shown a "bit of TPU box" used in Omagh and while he could not remember "touching anything" he added "but who knows?" An FSNI official admitted that the incident had shown a "casual approach" to protecting the integrity of forensic evidence in its care. However, the most serious threat to the prosecution case came when two police officers admitted that superiors had encouraged them to "beef up" witness statements.
Detective Chief Inspector Philip Graham Marshall admitted asking scenes-of-crime officer Fiona Cooper to change her witness statement relating to the discovery of a mortar bomb at Altmore Forest near Dungannon in 2001.
Ms Cooper admitted that Mr Marshall had asked her to add details to her original statement, about which she had no memory or notes. She told the court that a second witness statement in her name could not have been written by her as she had been in Zambia at the time it was allegedly written and dated.
Mr Marshall claimed he had been asked to "beef up" Ms Cooper's statement by an unnamed officer from the Omagh investigation team. The court was told that the police officers' original witness statements had also gone missing. Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan was subsequently asked to investigate the circumstances surrounding the statements and the disappearance of the original notes.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0867
Published Date: 21-Dec-07
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