OMAGH BOMB VICTIM STILL AWAITS PAY-OUT
Omagh bomb victim still awaits a pay-out
BY JOANNE LOWRY
j.lowry@newsletter.co.uk
A VICTIM of the 1998 Omagh bomb has spoken of her anger that she is still waiting for compensation seven years after the horror.
Ann McCrea, 51, suffered devastating injuries including a cracked skull and palate, a broken jaw and a broken nose.
As a result, she has been left with steel plates in her cheek and head and she has paid more than £6,000 in dental bills because all her teeth were broken in the blast.
Ms McCrea was forced to give up her job as a hospital worker and is still waiting for her claim to be settled more than seven years after the 5001b Real IRA bomb killed 29 people.
She said: "I don't know what I have to do to show how badly injured I was and I don't have any idea when this will be settled. But I can't move on with my life while this is ongoing."
Around 600 people were treated for injuries in the wake of the bombing and the Compensation Agency received 850 criminal injury claims from survivors and relatives of the dead.
However, a number of those cases are yet to be settled, including Ann McCrea's.
She is calling for the Government to introduce a better compensation system for terrorists' victims.
Omagh campaigner Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the atrocity, said he would be contacting Victims Minister Angela Smith to raise Ms McCrea's case.
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