TC/1852

Date fixed for Omagh civil case

THE landmark civil case being brought by the families of the Omagh bomb victims against the men they believe were involved in the attack is scheduled to begin on April 16 next year, it has been revealed.
The date for the £14 million case, the first civil action of its kind to be brought in the UK, was fixed in the High Court in Belfast on Friday. In 2003, the then Secretary of State, Paul Murphy, pledged around £700,000 in government funding towards the relatives' costs.
The civil action will follow on from the trial of Sean Gerard Hoey, the only man facing murder charges in relation to the 1998 atrocity, which began on September 25 and is expected to last around three months.
Relatives are taking action against five men - namely Michael McKevitt, Seamus Daly, Seamus McKenna, Liam Campbell and Colm Murphy - who they believe were involved in the planting of the 500lb car bomb which killed 29 people and injured hundreds more.
Michael Gallagher, chairman of the Omagh Support and Self Help Group, who lost his son, Aidan, in the massacre, said he hoped that the advent of the civil case would, in time, give way to the cross-border public inquiry so sought after by the families.
He said: "I think everybody is relieved that we have now got the Hoey trial underway and the civil action is in our sights. When all of these proceedings are out of the way, the families believe that will clear the path for a full, cross-border public inquiry and bring the public side of Omagh to a close as well."