EVIDENCE BID REFUSED
Evidence bid refused
BY ALAN ERWIN
TWO of the men being sued over the Omagh bomb atrocity yesterday failed in an attempt to have all evidence supplied by police to victims' families banned from the civil action.
Lawyers for Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly wanted interview notes, internal reports and cell site evidence excluded from the multi-million pound compensation case.
They claimed disclosure by the PSNI to relatives of some of the 29 people murdered in the terrorist attack 10 years ago was unlawful.
It was also argued that providing support and assistance to the families seeking exemplary damages strengthened suspicions of bias.
But delivering judgment on the application as the trial resumed at Belfast High Court, Mr Justice Morgan ruled there was no evidence that the PSNI had withheld any information from the suspects.
He also rejected claims of an "inequality of arms" by pointing out that during the trial the defendants' legal teams had referred to passages of material disclosed by police which they considered to be in their favour.
Murphy and Daly - along with convicted terror chief Michael McKevitt, Seamus McKenna and Liam Campbell - have been accused of responsibility for the August 1998 dissident republican bomb strike which devastated Omagh.
All five men deny liability in the landmark legal action which has sat in both Belfast and Dublin to hear evidence and is expected to continue for a number of weeks before Mr Justice Morgan retires to consider his verdict.
BY ALAN ERWIN
TWO of the men being sued over the Omagh bomb atrocity yesterday failed in an attempt to have all evidence supplied by police to victims' families banned from the civil action.
Lawyers for Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly wanted interview notes, internal reports and cell site evidence excluded from the multi-million pound compensation case.
They claimed disclosure by the PSNI to relatives of some of the 29 people murdered in the terrorist attack 10 years ago was unlawful.
It was also argued that providing support and assistance to the families seeking exemplary damages strengthened suspicions of bias.
But delivering judgment on the application as the trial resumed at Belfast High Court, Mr Justice Morgan ruled there was no evidence that the PSNI had withheld any information from the suspects.
He also rejected claims of an "inequality of arms" by pointing out that during the trial the defendants' legal teams had referred to passages of material disclosed by police which they considered to be in their favour.
Murphy and Daly - along with convicted terror chief Michael McKevitt, Seamus McKenna and Liam Campbell - have been accused of responsibility for the August 1998 dissident republican bomb strike which devastated Omagh.
All five men deny liability in the landmark legal action which has sat in both Belfast and Dublin to hear evidence and is expected to continue for a number of weeks before Mr Justice Morgan retires to consider his verdict.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/776
Published Date: 17-Sep-08
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