CIVIL ACTION BY OMAGH RELATIVES DUE TO BEGIN
Civil action by Omagh relatives due to begin
RELATIVES of the Omagh bomb victims will today begin their High Court attempt to win a multi-million-pound compensation legal action against five dissident republicans.
In an unprecedented legal move, the families are to seek damages from the men they suspect of involvement in the Real IRA atrocity.
Their lawyers will allege that Seamus McKenna, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly can be held liable for the devastating explosion in August 1998 which claimed the lives of 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, and injured hundreds more.
Nearly seven years after writs were first served on the defendants, and with no-one convicted for the outrage, victims' relatives still cling to the hope of securing some kind of justice.
The civil action, which is expected to last for eight weeks, has taken on even greater significance since south Armagh man Sean Hoey was acquitted last December of terrorist charges including the Omagh murders.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was among those killed in the blast, said the action has "sent out a message to terrorists that victims' families now have the capability to go after you. Whether we get the verdict we want or not, we will have taken these men to court," he said.
The relatives of just under half of those people murdered at Omagh are now involved in the claim for aggravated and the more punitive exemplary damages.
It is being heard by Mr Justice Morgan in a courtroom specially fitted out to cope with proceedings on such a scale. Queen's Bench No2 was closed for several days last week as court staff prepared it for the hearing.
State-of-the-art computer and video equipment has been installed, while both sides of the room were also lined with filing cabinets and piled high with boxes of documents.
Although three of the defendants - Daly, Murphy and McKenna - are not in jail, none of them are expected to travel from the Republic to Belfast for the proceedings.
But convicted Real IRA leader McKevitt, 58, who is serving a 20 year sentence at Portlaoise Prison, is believed to want to follow the case using video-link facilities.
If so, he is expected to hear counsel for the families allege that he and the four others being sued all bore responsibility for the bombing.
Lord Brennan QC, is heading the victims' case alongside Brett Lockhart QC. The action is then likely to focus on a number of key issues, including the testimony of David Rupert, the US trucking boss turned FBI spy.
Rupert has been in a witness protection programme since helping to convict McKevitt at his trial in August 2003 and will not attend the hearings in Belfast - his evidence is due to be read out in court.
Telephone matrix evidence, including cell site analysis which allegedly shows the route taken by the bombers, is expected to form another important part of the case.
The families' legal team are also due to revisit an area explored during the Hoey trial - how a series of Real IRA attacks during 1998 all allegedly involved the same bomb-maker.
RELATIVES of the Omagh bomb victims will today begin their High Court attempt to win a multi-million-pound compensation legal action against five dissident republicans.
In an unprecedented legal move, the families are to seek damages from the men they suspect of involvement in the Real IRA atrocity.
Their lawyers will allege that Seamus McKenna, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly can be held liable for the devastating explosion in August 1998 which claimed the lives of 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, and injured hundreds more.
Nearly seven years after writs were first served on the defendants, and with no-one convicted for the outrage, victims' relatives still cling to the hope of securing some kind of justice.
The civil action, which is expected to last for eight weeks, has taken on even greater significance since south Armagh man Sean Hoey was acquitted last December of terrorist charges including the Omagh murders.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was among those killed in the blast, said the action has "sent out a message to terrorists that victims' families now have the capability to go after you. Whether we get the verdict we want or not, we will have taken these men to court," he said.
The relatives of just under half of those people murdered at Omagh are now involved in the claim for aggravated and the more punitive exemplary damages.
It is being heard by Mr Justice Morgan in a courtroom specially fitted out to cope with proceedings on such a scale. Queen's Bench No2 was closed for several days last week as court staff prepared it for the hearing.
State-of-the-art computer and video equipment has been installed, while both sides of the room were also lined with filing cabinets and piled high with boxes of documents.
Although three of the defendants - Daly, Murphy and McKenna - are not in jail, none of them are expected to travel from the Republic to Belfast for the proceedings.
But convicted Real IRA leader McKevitt, 58, who is serving a 20 year sentence at Portlaoise Prison, is believed to want to follow the case using video-link facilities.
If so, he is expected to hear counsel for the families allege that he and the four others being sued all bore responsibility for the bombing.
Lord Brennan QC, is heading the victims' case alongside Brett Lockhart QC. The action is then likely to focus on a number of key issues, including the testimony of David Rupert, the US trucking boss turned FBI spy.
Rupert has been in a witness protection programme since helping to convict McKevitt at his trial in August 2003 and will not attend the hearings in Belfast - his evidence is due to be read out in court.
Telephone matrix evidence, including cell site analysis which allegedly shows the route taken by the bombers, is expected to form another important part of the case.
The families' legal team are also due to revisit an area explored during the Hoey trial - how a series of Real IRA attacks during 1998 all allegedly involved the same bomb-maker.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0909
Published Date: 07-Apr-08
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