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Special Branch officer faces quiz over Omagh
Man suspected of making anonymous phone warning
By DERIC HENDERSON

A SPECIAL Branch officer is the chief suspect as the source of an anonymous telephone call which warned police of a planned attack on Omagh in 1998.
The officer is to be questioned in a new twist to the police investigation into the Real IRA bombing of the Co Tyrone town, on August 15,1998, which killed 29 people.
The call to a detective in Omagh, was made 11 days before the atrocity, but the information was never passed on to police on the ground.
The officer will be asked if he made the call, and if he did, why?
The source of the telephone call has never been traced.
A male caller called the CID in Omagh at 10am, on August 4,1998, and spoke to a detective constable.
He named two men whom he claimed would be bringing across the Irish border four dismantled AK47 rifles and two rocket launchers, belonging to the Continuity IRA which, he said, would be used in an attack on police in Omagh, on August 15.
The caller claimed the weapons would be taken to a house close to the village of Beragh, outside Omagh, and then moved to another address in advance of the attack.
The caller claimed he would contact the police again the following evening.
At the time, the CID officer believed the caller to be genuine, briefed the senior detective on duty, and informed Special Branch officers.
They allegedly told him there was nothing in the information and that the two men named were ordinary criminals.
However, one of the officers asked that he be present in the Special Branch office in Omagh the next day for the second call. It never came.
The August 4 call and the text of the information was never registered on the database, which was set up for the huge police investigation and it was not until two years later, during a review of the inquiry by the RUC, that officers in Omagh became aware of it.
Phone records at the time of the Omagh bombing were only kept for three months and although police later denied that there had been a book detailing all threats before the attack, some victims' relatives believe there was one which mysteriously disappeared.
Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kinkaid, head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland's crime operations department, who is overseeing the investigation, said he was not prepared to comment on the new line of inquiry.
"All matters examined by the investigation team will be forwarded to the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) for his directions," said Mr Kinkaid.
Yesterday's disclosure that officers are to question one of their own men will heighten pressure from some of the victims' families for a full judicial inquiry.
Six and a half years on, nobody has yet been charged with the murders of the 29 victims, who included a woman pregnant with twins.
A High Court action by some relatives, who have accused five men of being responsible for the bombing, is expected to begin in Belfast next year. They are seeking £10 million in compensation.
A crown court trial is also due to start of Co Armagh man Sean Hoey, 34, who is facing charges involving explosives and membership of the Real IRA.
One of the charges against Hoey, of Molly Road, Jonesborough, involves possession of a timer power unit between March 1997 and August 16, 1998, the day after the Omagh bombing.