COURT TOLD OF OMAGH SUSPECT'S SNIGGERING
Court told of Omagh suspect's 'sniggering'
BY ALAN ERWIN
ONE of the Omagh bomb suspects was seen drunkenly laughing and sniggering in a bar hours after the atrocity, the High Court heard yesterday.
Seamus Daly also allegedly teased another drinker by accusing him of driving the car packed with explosives to the scene of the blast.
The claims were made to police by Patrick Morgan, who worked for businessman Colm Murphy - another of the five men being sued by relatives of some of the 29 people killed in the terrorist attack.
Morgan told detectives he unwittingly lent his mobile telephone to his boss the day before the mid-afternoon massacre in August 1998.
He was brought in for questioning months later because the investigation team believed this phone was used in the Vauxhall Cavalier that transported the bomb to the scene.
Transcripts from his interviews were read out at the multi-million pound civil action in Belfast by Gerry McLoughlin, one of the detectives who spent days quizzing him.
The court heard how Morgan claimed to have seen Murphy in the Emerald Bar he ran in Dundalk, Co Louth on the night of the Omagh bomb. Daly and other associates - including a butcher referred to as "the fat boy" - were with the pub owner, he told police.
Asked by detectives about Daly's behaviour that night, Morgan replied: "He was drunk and he was slabbering.
"He said you're the boy that drove that yoke (car) to Omagh. He was laughing, sniggering and drunk."
Morgan claimed to have walked away after the comments were made, telling police he "knew his pedigree".
Murphy and Daly are being sued along with convicted terror chief Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell and Seamus McKenna.
All five deny responsibility in a civil trial where the victims' families have made legal history by bringing alleged terrorists before the courts.
During a second day examining police interviews with Morgan, who worked as a foreman for Murphy on a Dublin building site, the court heard how he described McKenna as a "waster" who may have left the bar earlier that night because he was drunk.
According to Morgan he didn't turn up for work on the building site the whole of the next week, although he said this happened quite regularly when McKenna went on a binge.
At one stage in the interviews he admitted thinking those in the bar may have been involved with dissident republican organisations and sought reassurances from those questioning him by asking: "This definitely doesn't go anywhere, does it? Because I have a wife and children."
Cross examining Mr McLoughlin, Brian Fee QC, for McKenna, said the interviews with Morgan focused on Murphy's pub because it was believed to be a staunchly republican bar, with its regulars "tainted" by being in it.
"At times the suggestion was being put to Mr Morgan that anybody who would be drinking in the Emerald Bar is up to his neck in an illegal organisation: the Real IRA, Continuity IRA," Mr Fee said.
After the barrister referred to the republican paraphernalia and pictures of hunger strikers on its walls, Mr McLoughlin agreed that it was suggested to Morgan that virtually no one other than republicans would drink there.
But Mr Fee rejected this assessment before turning to the men Murphy employed.
He continued: "The idea that this is some sort of Real IRA cell that makes up this workforce is not right. That's what Mr Morgan was saying.
"He made it clear he didn't like Mr McKenna and he wasn't a bit afraid to make his views about Mr McKenna known."
The trial continues.
BY ALAN ERWIN
ONE of the Omagh bomb suspects was seen drunkenly laughing and sniggering in a bar hours after the atrocity, the High Court heard yesterday.
Seamus Daly also allegedly teased another drinker by accusing him of driving the car packed with explosives to the scene of the blast.
The claims were made to police by Patrick Morgan, who worked for businessman Colm Murphy - another of the five men being sued by relatives of some of the 29 people killed in the terrorist attack.
Morgan told detectives he unwittingly lent his mobile telephone to his boss the day before the mid-afternoon massacre in August 1998.
He was brought in for questioning months later because the investigation team believed this phone was used in the Vauxhall Cavalier that transported the bomb to the scene.
Transcripts from his interviews were read out at the multi-million pound civil action in Belfast by Gerry McLoughlin, one of the detectives who spent days quizzing him.
The court heard how Morgan claimed to have seen Murphy in the Emerald Bar he ran in Dundalk, Co Louth on the night of the Omagh bomb. Daly and other associates - including a butcher referred to as "the fat boy" - were with the pub owner, he told police.
Asked by detectives about Daly's behaviour that night, Morgan replied: "He was drunk and he was slabbering.
"He said you're the boy that drove that yoke (car) to Omagh. He was laughing, sniggering and drunk."
Morgan claimed to have walked away after the comments were made, telling police he "knew his pedigree".
Murphy and Daly are being sued along with convicted terror chief Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell and Seamus McKenna.
All five deny responsibility in a civil trial where the victims' families have made legal history by bringing alleged terrorists before the courts.
During a second day examining police interviews with Morgan, who worked as a foreman for Murphy on a Dublin building site, the court heard how he described McKenna as a "waster" who may have left the bar earlier that night because he was drunk.
According to Morgan he didn't turn up for work on the building site the whole of the next week, although he said this happened quite regularly when McKenna went on a binge.
At one stage in the interviews he admitted thinking those in the bar may have been involved with dissident republican organisations and sought reassurances from those questioning him by asking: "This definitely doesn't go anywhere, does it? Because I have a wife and children."
Cross examining Mr McLoughlin, Brian Fee QC, for McKenna, said the interviews with Morgan focused on Murphy's pub because it was believed to be a staunchly republican bar, with its regulars "tainted" by being in it.
"At times the suggestion was being put to Mr Morgan that anybody who would be drinking in the Emerald Bar is up to his neck in an illegal organisation: the Real IRA, Continuity IRA," Mr Fee said.
After the barrister referred to the republican paraphernalia and pictures of hunger strikers on its walls, Mr McLoughlin agreed that it was suggested to Morgan that virtually no one other than republicans would drink there.
But Mr Fee rejected this assessment before turning to the men Murphy employed.
He continued: "The idea that this is some sort of Real IRA cell that makes up this workforce is not right. That's what Mr Morgan was saying.
"He made it clear he didn't like Mr McKenna and he wasn't a bit afraid to make his views about Mr McKenna known."
The trial continues.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/760
Published Date: 18-Jun-08
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