MUGSHOT STOOD OUT BECAUSE OF FORMAT OMAGH TRIAL TOLD
Mugshot stood out because of format, Omagh trial told
By Sarah Stack PA
A PHOTOGRAPH of one of five men accused of carrying out the Omagh bombing stuck out like a sore thumb in an identification album, Dublin District Court heard yesterday.
Dermot Fee QC, for Seamus Daly, told the civil trial that Polaroid images of 11 different men had been put in a file alongside a picture of his client in a completely different format - a move he described as inappropriate.
Daly and five other men are being sued for S14 million by six families affected by the Real IRA blast which ripped through the Co Tyrone town on a busy Saturday afternoon in August 1998, killing 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.
Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell - said to be his number two - Colm Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Daly all deny involvement in the blast.
The court heard allegations that Daly had borrowed a mobile phone from Murphy and that its signal had been traced travelling from south Armagh to Omagh and back on the day of the bombing.
Judge Conal Gibbons was told that records showed a call was made from the borrowed mobile to Kilkenny man Denis O'Connor, who had previously being investigated by gardai for tax fraud.
Gardai arrested Mr O'Connor in Kilkenny on February 22 1999 and drove him to Carrickmacross Garda Station in Co Monaghan.
Detective Sergeant Sean Grennan, of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, said he showed the pictures to Mr O'Connor who then identified Daly as the man he spoke to on the phone the day of the bombing.
Mr Fee asked the detective whether it had been appropriate to use 11 similar photographs with names on the back and one completely different kind of picture of a person gardai wanted confirmed as a suspect.
"I was doing the best I could," Mr Grennan replied.
The garda said he had been asked to create an album of eight or more men who resembled the suspect and show them to the witness.
He said that because Daly had been arrested for a serious crime - unlawful possession of explosives - an official photographer had taken his pictures, whereas the other men questioned for minor offences had been photographed using a Polaroid camera.
"There was no other picture available," he said.
"If there was I would have put it in the album.
"I compiled the album with the photographs that I had available at the time.
"I didn't think it was inappropriate. I had no concerns." Mr Fee asked Mr Grennan whether he felt the picture stuck out "like a proverbial sore thumb". "I did not think it stuck out like a sore thumb," he replied. The legal action is the first time the victims of terrorism are confronting the alleged perpetrators and the first time evidence from a Northern Ireland case has been heard in the Republic.
Garda testimonies are being heard by Judge Gibbons in the presence of Mr Justice Morgan, who has presided over the case in Belfast Crown Court.
By Sarah Stack PA
A PHOTOGRAPH of one of five men accused of carrying out the Omagh bombing stuck out like a sore thumb in an identification album, Dublin District Court heard yesterday.
Dermot Fee QC, for Seamus Daly, told the civil trial that Polaroid images of 11 different men had been put in a file alongside a picture of his client in a completely different format - a move he described as inappropriate.
Daly and five other men are being sued for S14 million by six families affected by the Real IRA blast which ripped through the Co Tyrone town on a busy Saturday afternoon in August 1998, killing 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.
Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell - said to be his number two - Colm Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Daly all deny involvement in the blast.
The court heard allegations that Daly had borrowed a mobile phone from Murphy and that its signal had been traced travelling from south Armagh to Omagh and back on the day of the bombing.
Judge Conal Gibbons was told that records showed a call was made from the borrowed mobile to Kilkenny man Denis O'Connor, who had previously being investigated by gardai for tax fraud.
Gardai arrested Mr O'Connor in Kilkenny on February 22 1999 and drove him to Carrickmacross Garda Station in Co Monaghan.
Detective Sergeant Sean Grennan, of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, said he showed the pictures to Mr O'Connor who then identified Daly as the man he spoke to on the phone the day of the bombing.
Mr Fee asked the detective whether it had been appropriate to use 11 similar photographs with names on the back and one completely different kind of picture of a person gardai wanted confirmed as a suspect.
"I was doing the best I could," Mr Grennan replied.
The garda said he had been asked to create an album of eight or more men who resembled the suspect and show them to the witness.
He said that because Daly had been arrested for a serious crime - unlawful possession of explosives - an official photographer had taken his pictures, whereas the other men questioned for minor offences had been photographed using a Polaroid camera.
"There was no other picture available," he said.
"If there was I would have put it in the album.
"I compiled the album with the photographs that I had available at the time.
"I didn't think it was inappropriate. I had no concerns." Mr Fee asked Mr Grennan whether he felt the picture stuck out "like a proverbial sore thumb". "I did not think it stuck out like a sore thumb," he replied. The legal action is the first time the victims of terrorism are confronting the alleged perpetrators and the first time evidence from a Northern Ireland case has been heard in the Republic.
Garda testimonies are being heard by Judge Gibbons in the presence of Mr Justice Morgan, who has presided over the case in Belfast Crown Court.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0939
Published Date: 29-May-08
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