TC/1829

Omagh bomb suspect fails in £50,000 bail bid

OMAGH bomb suspect, Sean Hoey, has failed in his attempt to secure his freedom on bail while awaiting trial next September.
Mr. Justice Weir told the 36-year-old Jonesborough man that the fear of him absconding and fleeing to the Republic was too great for him to be bailed.
The Belfast Crown Court judge said that, despite the offer of £50,000 bail, he considered that "no conditions that the court might impose would guard against the risk of the applicant absconding."
Sitting at the back of the court for the short hearing was Michael Gallagher and his wife, Patsy, whose son Aiden died in the Omagh bombing of August 15, 1998.
Hoey faces 58 terrorist charges, involving 14 separate terrorist incidents, the most serious of which were the murders of the 29 Omagh victims, and causing the explosion which claimed their lives.
Mr. Justice Weir said that of the remaining incidents the defence conceded, for the bail hearing, there were prima facie cases in three of them - at Market Street, Lisburn, Newry Road, Armagh and Altmore Forest, Dungannon.
Bail, he said, was being sought on the grounds that Hoey had been in custody for 880 days, and that there was an inordinate delay in the case since he last applied for bail in April 2004.
Mr. Justice Weir said that while Hoey certainly had been in custody for some time, and that he will have to wait another seven months before his trial is heard, he was "not satisfied that the delay has been inordinate"
He said he was refusing bail as "there is a well-founded fear that if released on bail, the applicant would fail to surrender to it."
Mr. Justice Weir said that conclusion was based on the fact that Hoey had tried to evade arrest before when last sought by police, and had even tried to hide under a bush.
Added to this was his family ties in the South, and his history of employment there. Hoey "would find it more straightforward than others to establish himself there."