VAGUE CALLS ' WERE CALCULATED TO KILL'
Vague calls 'were calculated to kill'
THE dissident republicans who bombed the heart out of Omagh, killing 29 people, including unborn twins, meant to kill.
The claim was made by prosecuting QC Gordon Kerr at the Belfast Crown Court trial of 37-year-old south Armagh electrician Sean Hoey.
Mr Kerr's claim came in answer to a defence call for the trial of Hoey, from Molly Road, Jonesborough, to be aborted and for him to be acquitted of all 58 charges he denies, including the Omagh bomb murders.
The prosecution lawyer told Mr Justice Weir that the warnings given about the Omagh bombing were vague, misleading and wrong, unlike the warnings given for other bombing that year in Lisburn, Newry and Banbridge.
Mr Kerr claimed the motive behind those issuing the warnings was calculated to mislead the police and so cause carnage.
Earlier, the question mark over the DNA evidence, described as the foundation stone of the prosecution case, arose again.
Mr Kerr claimed that the Low Copy Number DNA technique had been validated both in the Forensic Science Services and by the outside scientific community.
He claimed the wider scientific community had not voiced any criticism to the published work on the technique, which he described as a dynamic process.
However, at one stage, Mr Justice Weir asked about the alleged conflict between Dr Peter Gill, the inventor of the technique, and Dr Jonathon Whitaker, who operated the system.
Dr Whitaker, said the judge, seemed to be more enthusiastic about LCN than Dr Gill, and it was hard preferring the view of the "disciple over the inventor".
THE dissident republicans who bombed the heart out of Omagh, killing 29 people, including unborn twins, meant to kill.
The claim was made by prosecuting QC Gordon Kerr at the Belfast Crown Court trial of 37-year-old south Armagh electrician Sean Hoey.
Mr Kerr's claim came in answer to a defence call for the trial of Hoey, from Molly Road, Jonesborough, to be aborted and for him to be acquitted of all 58 charges he denies, including the Omagh bomb murders.
The prosecution lawyer told Mr Justice Weir that the warnings given about the Omagh bombing were vague, misleading and wrong, unlike the warnings given for other bombing that year in Lisburn, Newry and Banbridge.
Mr Kerr claimed the motive behind those issuing the warnings was calculated to mislead the police and so cause carnage.
Earlier, the question mark over the DNA evidence, described as the foundation stone of the prosecution case, arose again.
Mr Kerr claimed that the Low Copy Number DNA technique had been validated both in the Forensic Science Services and by the outside scientific community.
He claimed the wider scientific community had not voiced any criticism to the published work on the technique, which he described as a dynamic process.
However, at one stage, Mr Justice Weir asked about the alleged conflict between Dr Peter Gill, the inventor of the technique, and Dr Jonathon Whitaker, who operated the system.
Dr Whitaker, said the judge, seemed to be more enthusiastic about LCN than Dr Gill, and it was hard preferring the view of the "disciple over the inventor".
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/680
Published Date: 19-Dec-06
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