REAL IRA BOOK CAUSES DISPUTE IN OMAGH CASE
Real IRA book causes dispute in Omagh case
LAWYERS for convicted Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt have resisted at-tempts to have a book on the dissident group being introduced at the Omagh bombing civil trial.
Their opposition was made clear during admissibility arguments at the High Court in Belfast.
Legal representatives of relatives of some of the people killed at Omagh want to use the book Black Operations: The Secret War Against the Real IRA as part of their multi-million-pound compensation case against five men they hold responsible for the outrage.
Brett Lockhart QC told the hearing: "Mr McKevitt has a history, a very well-known history and this book seems to tie in with that."
But Michael O'Higgins SC, representing McKevitt who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in the Republic for directing terrorism, said it would be a "bridge too far" to allow a book published around the same time as his client's criminal trial in 2003.
Mr O'Higgins said he would then be forced to call the authors, John Mooney and Michael O'Toole, to question them on the source of their information.
"I can foresee that Mr Mooney and Mr O'Toole, like all journalists, would say they conducted their interviews in confidence and would not reveal what their sources are," the barrister said.
Mr O'Higgins warned that the legal arguments could then take months.
He referred to the book reading like the "finest of fiction".
Mr O'Higgins also insisted that the Civil Evidence Order was not meant for such situations.
"Legislators never intended that the purpose was so that popular books would be read out in court and tendered as actual evidence," he said.
McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Seamus McKenna, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly all deny liability for the bombing.
Meanwhile, a man who worked for Murphy and claimed to have unwittingly lent his mobile phone to his boss the day before the terrorist attack is due to appear at the trial today where a judge will decide whether he is fit to be cross- examined by barristers.
Lawyers for three of the defendants want to question Terence Patrick Morgan about claims he made during police interviews after the August 1998 Real IRA attack, which killed 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.
During those sessions it was also alleged that he falsely signed in one of them, McKenna, as being at work on the day of the bombing.
The judge hearing the case, Mr Justice Morgan, has been told that the witness is undergoing psychiatric treatment.
After the judge studies a medical report he will decide whether to put him in the witness box.
LAWYERS for convicted Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt have resisted at-tempts to have a book on the dissident group being introduced at the Omagh bombing civil trial.
Their opposition was made clear during admissibility arguments at the High Court in Belfast.
Legal representatives of relatives of some of the people killed at Omagh want to use the book Black Operations: The Secret War Against the Real IRA as part of their multi-million-pound compensation case against five men they hold responsible for the outrage.
Brett Lockhart QC told the hearing: "Mr McKevitt has a history, a very well-known history and this book seems to tie in with that."
But Michael O'Higgins SC, representing McKevitt who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in the Republic for directing terrorism, said it would be a "bridge too far" to allow a book published around the same time as his client's criminal trial in 2003.
Mr O'Higgins said he would then be forced to call the authors, John Mooney and Michael O'Toole, to question them on the source of their information.
"I can foresee that Mr Mooney and Mr O'Toole, like all journalists, would say they conducted their interviews in confidence and would not reveal what their sources are," the barrister said.
Mr O'Higgins warned that the legal arguments could then take months.
He referred to the book reading like the "finest of fiction".
Mr O'Higgins also insisted that the Civil Evidence Order was not meant for such situations.
"Legislators never intended that the purpose was so that popular books would be read out in court and tendered as actual evidence," he said.
McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Seamus McKenna, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly all deny liability for the bombing.
Meanwhile, a man who worked for Murphy and claimed to have unwittingly lent his mobile phone to his boss the day before the terrorist attack is due to appear at the trial today where a judge will decide whether he is fit to be cross- examined by barristers.
Lawyers for three of the defendants want to question Terence Patrick Morgan about claims he made during police interviews after the August 1998 Real IRA attack, which killed 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.
During those sessions it was also alleged that he falsely signed in one of them, McKenna, as being at work on the day of the bombing.
The judge hearing the case, Mr Justice Morgan, has been told that the witness is undergoing psychiatric treatment.
After the judge studies a medical report he will decide whether to put him in the witness box.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0981
Published Date: 12-Nov-08
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