TC/0856

Bomb accused gets go-ahead for contempt of court proceedings

THE special criminal court in Dublin ruled on Monday that the man accused of plotting the 1998 Omagh bomb was entitled to bring contempt of court against the BBC and the Daily Mail.
Colm Murphy has brought a notice for attachment, committal and sequestration against the BBC and Associated Newspapers for alleged contempt of court by the BBC's Panorama programme and a follow-up report in the Mail.
The programme investigated the background to the Omagh bombing and made allegations about named individuals.
Counsel for the director of public prosecutions Mr. Tom O'Connell SC had argued that Murphy had no legal standing to bring contempt proceedings in the special criminal court and that the only channel for doing so was through the DPP.
However, Mr. Justice Diarmuid O'Donovan, presiding, said that the section of the Offences Against the State Act setting up the court gave it the same jurisdiction and powers in relation to contempt of court as the high court in 'the same manner and in a like case'.
The court, therefore, ruled that Murphy had legal standing to bring his complaint before the special criminal court. The court will rule later on an application by Mr. Kevin Feeney SC, counsel for the BBC and Associated Newspapers for the matter to be deal with by the high court.
Mr. Feeney submitted that there were "compelling reasons" why the high court is a more suitable venue to hear the case. He said that there were procedures available to the high court which are not available to the special criminal court.
He also submitted that the case should be dealt with by a jury trial, which was not possible if it was heard in the special criminal court.
The trial of Colm Murphy, who was not in court for Monday's hearing, is due to begin on October 9.
Forty-eight year-old Murphy, a building contractor and publican, is a native of Co. Armagh, but no has an address in Co. Louth. He is charged
with conspiring in Dundalk with another person not before the court to cause an explosion in the state or elsewhere between August 13 and 16,
1998.
He is also charged with membership of an illegal organisation styling itself Oglaigh na hEireann on August 14,1998. The Real IRA claimed responsibility for the attack on August 15,1998, when 29 people were killed and hundreds injured.
Murphy had been remanded on continuing bail of £50,000 until the trial.