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Omagh bomb awards 'just not enough'

RELATIVES of those killed in the Omagh bomb should be given increased damages because of the scale of the outrage, the Court of Appeal heard yesterday.
Lawyers for the families who successfully sued four dissident republicans over the Real IRA attack which claimed 29 lives argued that the total £1.6 million award was not sufficient.
Senior judges were told that compensation should be set at a more punitive level.
Lord Brennan QC. appearing for the victims' relatives, claimed the case was breaking completely new ground.
The call for a higher level of payout followed on from appeals by each of the men found liable for the August 1998 atrocity.
Jailed Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt, Co Louth farmer Liam Campbell, Dundalk-based builder and publican Colm Murphy, and Seamus Daly, from Cullaville, Co Monaghan, are challenging rulings made against them in a landmark legal case.
In June 2009. Mr Justice Morgan, now the Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan, also held the Real IRA's army council responsible for directing the bombing.
Compensation was awarded to each of the 12 relatives who brought the lawsuit.
But Lord Brennan said yesterday: "It's just not enough to reflect this kind of case."
He added: "The judge has found the damages. It's a question of quantifying it."
The appeal continues.