OFFICERS RECALL HORRORS OF OMAGH BOMB
Officers recall horrors of the Omagh bomb
BY IAN GRAHAM
POLICE officers yesterday relived the horror of the Omagh bombing as they gave evidence in the civil action being taken by victims of the atrocity against the five men they believe responsible for the Real IRA attack.
Four officers took the stand on day two of the multi-million-pound action to recall the day - August 15, 1998 - on which 29 people were slaughtered when a car bomb exploded in the heart of the Tyrone town on a busy Saturday afternoon.
Their evidence was preceded by three harrowing home videos shot by people caught up in the bombing, which gave those in the courtroom at Belfast High Court an eyewitness view of the horror, death, destruction and injury.
None of the Omagh families were in the court to view the videos, which were played out to a silent courtroom where all eyes were fixed on the images on two large TV screens either side of the judge, Mr Justice Morgan, and projected on the wall above him.
Six Omagh families affected by the bombing have mounted a civil action against those they believe responsible for the bombing following the failure of the authorities to bring anyone to justice.
The five men named in the action are Michael McKevitt, alleged leader of the Real IRA, the man said to be his number two, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly.
None of the men have attended court - two, McKevitt and Campbell, prevented by their detention in prison in the Republic for crimes unconnected with the Omagh bombing. All five deny involvement.
Constable Alan Palmer, who had been in the RUC for just a year when the bomb exploded, recalled the horrific scenes he witnessed when the bomb exploded as police were trying to evacuate the town centre.
Warning calls had said the bomb was outside the courthouse at the top of the town and they directed people away from there down the hill towards Market Street - just where the car bomb had, in fact, been planted some 400m away from where police believed it to be.
Constable Palmer said: "There was carnage. It was a battlefield, it was horrendous.
"There was mayhem, people screaming and running around with body parts."
The constable said there were cars on fire and casualties on fire and he did what he could to tend to the injured.
Sergeant Wesley McCracken said: "It was the most horrific sight in my life. I saw the deceased on a fairly regular basis - this was beyond the pale."
He added: "We helped the injured, we dignified the dead and preserved the scene for a criminal investigation."
People, he said, were in a shocking state and the scene so horrendous that police moved bodies away from public view and set up a makeshift mortuary in a side alley. He said they broke into a curtain shop to get material in which to wrap bodies before they were taken away to an Army base to be identified.
Sgt McCracken said he had been at the scene of the Droppin Well pub bombing at Ballykelly in 1982 in which 11 soldiers and six civilians died.
He said: "It paled in significance in terms of the large numbers of casualties and deaths.
"There were bodies strewn across the street in all conditions. Clothes had been blown off some. It was horrendous."
Constable Louise Stewart recalled racing towards the scene of the explosion from the checkpoint she had been manning near the courthouse.
She said: "The place was strewn with debris, strewn with bodies and parts of bodies - it was just so horrific."
She said she came upon people who were on fire and people who were injured.
Constable Geoffrey Eakin was one of those put in charge of the dead at the makeshift mortuary.
He said: "We were each allocated three bodies to remain with. I was with those numbered seven, eight and nine - two of the bodies were women and the third was a small child."
All of the officers told of being alerted to a bomb having been planted at the courthouse, not where it exploded.
Constable Eakin described the court as "a symbol in the centre of the town of the British state, an easy target".
Challenged by Dermot Fee QC, representing Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly, that the bomb being in a different place to where the police searched was the result of a mistake, he commented: "People who do this, they accept civilian casualties."
BY IAN GRAHAM
POLICE officers yesterday relived the horror of the Omagh bombing as they gave evidence in the civil action being taken by victims of the atrocity against the five men they believe responsible for the Real IRA attack.
Four officers took the stand on day two of the multi-million-pound action to recall the day - August 15, 1998 - on which 29 people were slaughtered when a car bomb exploded in the heart of the Tyrone town on a busy Saturday afternoon.
Their evidence was preceded by three harrowing home videos shot by people caught up in the bombing, which gave those in the courtroom at Belfast High Court an eyewitness view of the horror, death, destruction and injury.
None of the Omagh families were in the court to view the videos, which were played out to a silent courtroom where all eyes were fixed on the images on two large TV screens either side of the judge, Mr Justice Morgan, and projected on the wall above him.
Six Omagh families affected by the bombing have mounted a civil action against those they believe responsible for the bombing following the failure of the authorities to bring anyone to justice.
The five men named in the action are Michael McKevitt, alleged leader of the Real IRA, the man said to be his number two, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly.
None of the men have attended court - two, McKevitt and Campbell, prevented by their detention in prison in the Republic for crimes unconnected with the Omagh bombing. All five deny involvement.
Constable Alan Palmer, who had been in the RUC for just a year when the bomb exploded, recalled the horrific scenes he witnessed when the bomb exploded as police were trying to evacuate the town centre.
Warning calls had said the bomb was outside the courthouse at the top of the town and they directed people away from there down the hill towards Market Street - just where the car bomb had, in fact, been planted some 400m away from where police believed it to be.
Constable Palmer said: "There was carnage. It was a battlefield, it was horrendous.
"There was mayhem, people screaming and running around with body parts."
The constable said there were cars on fire and casualties on fire and he did what he could to tend to the injured.
Sergeant Wesley McCracken said: "It was the most horrific sight in my life. I saw the deceased on a fairly regular basis - this was beyond the pale."
He added: "We helped the injured, we dignified the dead and preserved the scene for a criminal investigation."
People, he said, were in a shocking state and the scene so horrendous that police moved bodies away from public view and set up a makeshift mortuary in a side alley. He said they broke into a curtain shop to get material in which to wrap bodies before they were taken away to an Army base to be identified.
Sgt McCracken said he had been at the scene of the Droppin Well pub bombing at Ballykelly in 1982 in which 11 soldiers and six civilians died.
He said: "It paled in significance in terms of the large numbers of casualties and deaths.
"There were bodies strewn across the street in all conditions. Clothes had been blown off some. It was horrendous."
Constable Louise Stewart recalled racing towards the scene of the explosion from the checkpoint she had been manning near the courthouse.
She said: "The place was strewn with debris, strewn with bodies and parts of bodies - it was just so horrific."
She said she came upon people who were on fire and people who were injured.
Constable Geoffrey Eakin was one of those put in charge of the dead at the makeshift mortuary.
He said: "We were each allocated three bodies to remain with. I was with those numbered seven, eight and nine - two of the bodies were women and the third was a small child."
All of the officers told of being alerted to a bomb having been planted at the courthouse, not where it exploded.
Constable Eakin described the court as "a symbol in the centre of the town of the British state, an easy target".
Challenged by Dermot Fee QC, representing Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly, that the bomb being in a different place to where the police searched was the result of a mistake, he commented: "People who do this, they accept civilian casualties."
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/746
Published Date: 09-Apr-08
Related Images
There have been no images archived for this article.