I WAS TORTURED OMAGH SUSPECT'S EX-WIFE SAYS
I was tortured' Omagh suspect's ex-wife says
THE former wife of one of the men being sued over the Omagh bombing has claimed she was "tortured" for four days by detectives hunting the gang responsible.
Catherine McKenna also told the High Court her ex-husband Seamus, pictured, had no paramilitary involvement that she knew of.
Giving evidence after being summonsed to the multi-million-pound civil action in Belfast, she described him instead as a man who usually only made contact from a pub when he was drunk.
The south Armagh woman, who separated from McKenna five years before the August
1998 Real IRA attack which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, was held by police the following March.
Detectives brought her in for questioning about a phone call to her home which they suspected was made by her ex-husband less than an hour after the explosion.
Cross-examined by Brian Fee QC for McKenna, she said: "They dragged me out of the house and took me in a helicopter to Bessbrook and then to Derry.
"I was tortured for four days. I was told my children were going to be arrested... our son was going to be lifted."
She recalled how her two daughters were due to give birth at the time and said her children were screaming as she was taken away.
"I was told I wasn't going to see my grandchildren," she said. The witness went into the witness box at the civil trial of McKenna, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly - who are being sued by victims' families - despite a doctor's certificate stating it may be inadvisable due to a medical condition.
THE former wife of one of the men being sued over the Omagh bombing has claimed she was "tortured" for four days by detectives hunting the gang responsible.
Catherine McKenna also told the High Court her ex-husband Seamus, pictured, had no paramilitary involvement that she knew of.
Giving evidence after being summonsed to the multi-million-pound civil action in Belfast, she described him instead as a man who usually only made contact from a pub when he was drunk.
The south Armagh woman, who separated from McKenna five years before the August
1998 Real IRA attack which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, was held by police the following March.
Detectives brought her in for questioning about a phone call to her home which they suspected was made by her ex-husband less than an hour after the explosion.
Cross-examined by Brian Fee QC for McKenna, she said: "They dragged me out of the house and took me in a helicopter to Bessbrook and then to Derry.
"I was tortured for four days. I was told my children were going to be arrested... our son was going to be lifted."
She recalled how her two daughters were due to give birth at the time and said her children were screaming as she was taken away.
"I was told I wasn't going to see my grandchildren," she said. The witness went into the witness box at the civil trial of McKenna, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly - who are being sued by victims' families - despite a doctor's certificate stating it may be inadvisable due to a medical condition.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0975
Published Date: 22-Oct-08
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