POSSIBLE DELAY TO APPEALS BY MEN LIABLE FOR OMAGH
Possible delay to appeals by men liable for Omagh
APPEALS by four men held liable for the Omagh bomb atrocity could be delayed.
Lawyers for one of those successfully sued by relatives of some of those murdered in the Real IRA blast indicated a hearing planned for January may have to be put back.
The potential hold-up to the challenge is due to material being sought in a bid to help overturn the original findings. After being updated yesterday, Lord Justice Higgins told the legal teams involved: "If there is to be an application to vacate the date for which this appeal is presently fixed, that application will require to be made in the first half of November."
A separate bid by victims' families to obtain a more punitive award of exemplary damages against those deemed responsible is also due to be mounted during a scheduled two-week hearing. In a landmark ruling last year Mr Justice Declan Morgan, now the Lord Chief Justice, ordered that more than SI.6 million in total should be paid out to 12 relatives who sought compensation for the August 1998 bombing which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, and injured hundreds more.
Jailed dissident leader Michael McKevitt and Liam Campbell, who was undefended at the original civil action, were held to be liable for the bombing. Campbell, in custody facing a bid to have him extradited to Lithuania on arms smuggling charges, was described as a member of the Real IRA's 'army council' at the time of the attack.
Similar findings were made against two other men, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly, following a year-long trial. Their planned challenges were originally in doubt until they were all granted legal aid earlier this year.
During a review hearing yesterday Mary Higgins QC for Daly, stressed that all involved wanted the appeal to go ahead on time.
But she flagged up potential delays over obtaining all transcripts and documents required to mount a full challenge to the original verdict.
Brett Lockhart QC for the victims' families, claimed the only difficulty appeared to be over Daly's requests for "all sorts of extraneous material". Mr Lockhart said Daly wanted to go over "various other conspiracy theories", but accepted it was his right to bring the appeal in whatever way he wanted.
"The fact they wish to have such a wide-ranging amount of documentation should not be permitted to delay the trial of this matter," he said. Lawyers on both sides were told to meet again later this week in an attempt to finalise indexes of material they will seek to rely on.
APPEALS by four men held liable for the Omagh bomb atrocity could be delayed.
Lawyers for one of those successfully sued by relatives of some of those murdered in the Real IRA blast indicated a hearing planned for January may have to be put back.
The potential hold-up to the challenge is due to material being sought in a bid to help overturn the original findings. After being updated yesterday, Lord Justice Higgins told the legal teams involved: "If there is to be an application to vacate the date for which this appeal is presently fixed, that application will require to be made in the first half of November."
A separate bid by victims' families to obtain a more punitive award of exemplary damages against those deemed responsible is also due to be mounted during a scheduled two-week hearing. In a landmark ruling last year Mr Justice Declan Morgan, now the Lord Chief Justice, ordered that more than SI.6 million in total should be paid out to 12 relatives who sought compensation for the August 1998 bombing which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, and injured hundreds more.
Jailed dissident leader Michael McKevitt and Liam Campbell, who was undefended at the original civil action, were held to be liable for the bombing. Campbell, in custody facing a bid to have him extradited to Lithuania on arms smuggling charges, was described as a member of the Real IRA's 'army council' at the time of the attack.
Similar findings were made against two other men, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly, following a year-long trial. Their planned challenges were originally in doubt until they were all granted legal aid earlier this year.
During a review hearing yesterday Mary Higgins QC for Daly, stressed that all involved wanted the appeal to go ahead on time.
But she flagged up potential delays over obtaining all transcripts and documents required to mount a full challenge to the original verdict.
Brett Lockhart QC for the victims' families, claimed the only difficulty appeared to be over Daly's requests for "all sorts of extraneous material". Mr Lockhart said Daly wanted to go over "various other conspiracy theories", but accepted it was his right to bring the appeal in whatever way he wanted.
"The fact they wish to have such a wide-ranging amount of documentation should not be permitted to delay the trial of this matter," he said. Lawyers on both sides were told to meet again later this week in an attempt to finalise indexes of material they will seek to rely on.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/1039
Published Date: 19-Oct-10
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