OMAGH BOMB ACCUSED WILL NOT TAKE STAND AT TRIAL
Omagh bomb accused will not take stand at trial
THE man accused of the Omagh bomb, Sean Hoey, turned down the chance to give evidence at his trial on Tuesday.
As a forensic expert gave evidence that fibres which allegedly link him to another terrorist attack were coincidental, a defence lawyer confirmed that Hoey did not intend to go into the witness box at Belfast Crown Court.
Hoey, 37, an electrician from south Armagh, denies 56 charges connected to a series of dissident republican strikes, including the August 1998 Omagh atrocity when 29 people were killed.
As well as voice analysis and DNA profiling, the case against him is based on four fibres taken from a timer power unit recovered from a massive car bomb defused in the centre of Lisburn, months before the Omagh attack.
Another forensic scientist told the trial earlier that these finds were indistinguishable from fibres retrieved five years later during searches of Hoey's mobile home at Molly Road, Jonesborough.
But the defence opened its case on the 52nd day of the trial by calling a specialist in textiles examination who disputed Dr Ruth Griffen's findings.
Roger Cook told the court that thousands of fibre types from Hoey's home were compared with the timer power unit.
He said: "What's happened in this case is instead of having one garment from which fibres may have come, there would be hundreds, so the chances of a coincidental match would go up enormously."
Mr Cook added that once any fibres are transferred, they start to shed immediately.
"Within the first two to three hours, almost all are gone," he said.
"Within the first few days, virtually all are gone and we're talking about a gap of five years."
Hoey's barrister, Orlando Pownall QC, told Mr Justice Weir, the judge in the non-jury trial, that he expected to finish calling witnesses and make final submissions by the end of this week.
After that, Mr Justice Weir is expected to reserve judgment in one of the biggest criminal trials in British legal history.
Earlier, the trial heard that a detonator used in another of the terrorists' plot Hoey is charged with underwent unexplained changes after it was first examined.
His legal team recalled a forensic scientist who studied the device and asked him to give a reason for the apparent significant differences in a length of wire attached to a detonator used with 5001b of homemade explosives planted near a police station in Armagh in May 1998. Photographs seemed to show how this had been extended by up to three times from when Gordon McMillen examined the device months after the foiled attack and when a new analysis was carried out late last year.
Mr Pownall told him: "You have got no explanation for why about one and a half centimetres of wire is protruding in the photographs at the end of last year and significantly less in photographs taken at the scene."
The forensic expert agreed with his assessment, replying: "I have no explanation."
Wrongly-labelled exhibits have become a key issue in the trial, along with the discrediting of DNA forensic techniques used to link Hoey to a number of terrorist offences.
The trial continues.
THE man accused of the Omagh bomb, Sean Hoey, turned down the chance to give evidence at his trial on Tuesday.
As a forensic expert gave evidence that fibres which allegedly link him to another terrorist attack were coincidental, a defence lawyer confirmed that Hoey did not intend to go into the witness box at Belfast Crown Court.
Hoey, 37, an electrician from south Armagh, denies 56 charges connected to a series of dissident republican strikes, including the August 1998 Omagh atrocity when 29 people were killed.
As well as voice analysis and DNA profiling, the case against him is based on four fibres taken from a timer power unit recovered from a massive car bomb defused in the centre of Lisburn, months before the Omagh attack.
Another forensic scientist told the trial earlier that these finds were indistinguishable from fibres retrieved five years later during searches of Hoey's mobile home at Molly Road, Jonesborough.
But the defence opened its case on the 52nd day of the trial by calling a specialist in textiles examination who disputed Dr Ruth Griffen's findings.
Roger Cook told the court that thousands of fibre types from Hoey's home were compared with the timer power unit.
He said: "What's happened in this case is instead of having one garment from which fibres may have come, there would be hundreds, so the chances of a coincidental match would go up enormously."
Mr Cook added that once any fibres are transferred, they start to shed immediately.
"Within the first two to three hours, almost all are gone," he said.
"Within the first few days, virtually all are gone and we're talking about a gap of five years."
Hoey's barrister, Orlando Pownall QC, told Mr Justice Weir, the judge in the non-jury trial, that he expected to finish calling witnesses and make final submissions by the end of this week.
After that, Mr Justice Weir is expected to reserve judgment in one of the biggest criminal trials in British legal history.
Earlier, the trial heard that a detonator used in another of the terrorists' plot Hoey is charged with underwent unexplained changes after it was first examined.
His legal team recalled a forensic scientist who studied the device and asked him to give a reason for the apparent significant differences in a length of wire attached to a detonator used with 5001b of homemade explosives planted near a police station in Armagh in May 1998. Photographs seemed to show how this had been extended by up to three times from when Gordon McMillen examined the device months after the foiled attack and when a new analysis was carried out late last year.
Mr Pownall told him: "You have got no explanation for why about one and a half centimetres of wire is protruding in the photographs at the end of last year and significantly less in photographs taken at the scene."
The forensic expert agreed with his assessment, replying: "I have no explanation."
Wrongly-labelled exhibits have become a key issue in the trial, along with the discrediting of DNA forensic techniques used to link Hoey to a number of terrorist offences.
The trial continues.
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/1868
Published Date: 11-Jan-07
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