OMAGH CASE MAN APPEALS
Omagh case man appeals
By MICHAEL BRENNAN
THE only man convicted in connection with the Omagh bombing began a court battle yesterday to have his 14-year sentence overturned.
Colm Murphy, 51, from Ravensdale, Co Louth, was found guilty of conspiring to cause the 1998 explosion, which killed 29 people and injured more than 300.
Murphy supplied two mobile phones used by the bombers to communicate between the car carrying the bomb and a scout car travelling ahead.
At the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin, lawyers for Murphy said they would seek leave to appeal against his conviction on 40 grounds.
Senior counsel Michael O'Higgins said: "A huge element of my application concentrates on the fact that, at the trial, two officers had re-written notes and committed massive perjury."
The two officers, Detective Gardai Liam Donnelly and John Fahy, provided no explanation for why a page of notes had been altered.
The changes were exposed by electrostatic document analysis (ESDA) tests.
Mr O'Higgins said: "Can one exclude the possibility of cross-contamination beyond reasonable doubt?"
Mr O'Higgins said ESDA tests had exposed the rewriting of notes in the cases of the Guildford Four.
"The Crown felt none of the convictions could be relied on as safe or satisfactory," he said.
He said notes had also been rewritten in the cases of the Birmingham Six and four Ulster Defence Regiment members.
Mr O'Higgins said he would be galling into question the evidence of Terence Morgan who testified that he loaned Murphy one of the phones used in the bombing.
Morgan retracted this in his final day of evidence. The court accepted his initial testimony.
The trial was adjourned on November 19, 2001 and resumed on January 14, 2002.
The appeal hearing is expected to last a further two days.
By MICHAEL BRENNAN
THE only man convicted in connection with the Omagh bombing began a court battle yesterday to have his 14-year sentence overturned.
Colm Murphy, 51, from Ravensdale, Co Louth, was found guilty of conspiring to cause the 1998 explosion, which killed 29 people and injured more than 300.
Murphy supplied two mobile phones used by the bombers to communicate between the car carrying the bomb and a scout car travelling ahead.
At the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin, lawyers for Murphy said they would seek leave to appeal against his conviction on 40 grounds.
Senior counsel Michael O'Higgins said: "A huge element of my application concentrates on the fact that, at the trial, two officers had re-written notes and committed massive perjury."
The two officers, Detective Gardai Liam Donnelly and John Fahy, provided no explanation for why a page of notes had been altered.
The changes were exposed by electrostatic document analysis (ESDA) tests.
Mr O'Higgins said: "Can one exclude the possibility of cross-contamination beyond reasonable doubt?"
Mr O'Higgins said ESDA tests had exposed the rewriting of notes in the cases of the Guildford Four.
"The Crown felt none of the convictions could be relied on as safe or satisfactory," he said.
He said notes had also been rewritten in the cases of the Birmingham Six and four Ulster Defence Regiment members.
Mr O'Higgins said he would be galling into question the evidence of Terence Morgan who testified that he loaned Murphy one of the phones used in the bombing.
Morgan retracted this in his final day of evidence. The court accepted his initial testimony.
The trial was adjourned on November 19, 2001 and resumed on January 14, 2002.
The appeal hearing is expected to last a further two days.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/576
Published Date: 08-Dec-04
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