OFFICERS RECALL HORRIFIC SCENES OF BOMBING
Officers recall 'horrific' scenes of bombing
POLICE officers giving evidence to the Omagh bombing civil action have told the High Court of the "horrendous carnage" they witnessed on that fateful day of August 15, 1998.
Four officers took the stand on Tuesday - day two of the hearing - and their evidence was preceded by three harrowing home videos shot by people caught up in the bombing, which gave those in the courtroom at Belfast High Court an eyewitness view of the horror, death, destruction and injury.
None of the Omagh families were in the court to view the videos, which were played to a silent courtroom.
One of the four officers who gave evidence, Sergeant Wesley McCracken, told of seeing bodies without limbs, some without clothes strewn across a tremendous flood of water.
Describing the atrocity, he said it made the aftermath of another Northern Ireland atrocity "pale into insignificance". He said it was 'horrendous carnage', many times worse than the 1982 Droppin' Well bombing at Ballykelly, in which 11 soldiers and six civilians died - an atrocity which he also attended.
"It was the most horrific sight in my life.
"We helped the injured, we dignified the dead and preserved the scene for a criminal investigation."
He said people were in a shocking state and the scene so horrendous that police moved bodies away from public view and set up a makeshift mortuary in a side alley.
Constable Alan Palmer, who had been in the RUC for just a year when the bomb exploded, recalled the horrific scenes he witnessed when the bomb exploded as police were trying to evacuate the town centre.
Constable Palmer said: "There was carnage. It was a battlefield, it was horrendous.
"There was mayhem, people screaming and running around with body parts."
Constable Louise Stewart broke down as she told how words could never describe the horrific scenes she had witnessed that day.
Recalling how she raced towards the scene of the explosion from the checkpoint she had been manning near the courthouse, she said: "The place was strewn with debris, strewn with bodies and parts of bodies - it was just so horrific."
Constable Geoffrey Eakin was one of those put in charge of the dead at the makeshift mortuary.
He said: "We were each allocated three bodies to remain with. I was with those numbered seven, eight and nine - two of the bodies were women and the third a small child."
All of the officers told of being alerted to a bomb having been planted at the courthouse, not where it exploded.
In his cross-examination, Brett Lockhart QC questioned the officers about the time they had received the bomb warning and the discrepancies about its exact location.
The five accused - Michael McKevitt, Seamus Daly, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus McKenna - were not in court and will not be providing evidence. They all deny involvement in the bombing.
The men are being sued by relatives of some of the victims of the August 1998 atrocity which killed 29 people and unborn twins.
POLICE officers giving evidence to the Omagh bombing civil action have told the High Court of the "horrendous carnage" they witnessed on that fateful day of August 15, 1998.
Four officers took the stand on Tuesday - day two of the hearing - and their evidence was preceded by three harrowing home videos shot by people caught up in the bombing, which gave those in the courtroom at Belfast High Court an eyewitness view of the horror, death, destruction and injury.
None of the Omagh families were in the court to view the videos, which were played to a silent courtroom.
One of the four officers who gave evidence, Sergeant Wesley McCracken, told of seeing bodies without limbs, some without clothes strewn across a tremendous flood of water.
Describing the atrocity, he said it made the aftermath of another Northern Ireland atrocity "pale into insignificance". He said it was 'horrendous carnage', many times worse than the 1982 Droppin' Well bombing at Ballykelly, in which 11 soldiers and six civilians died - an atrocity which he also attended.
"It was the most horrific sight in my life.
"We helped the injured, we dignified the dead and preserved the scene for a criminal investigation."
He said people were in a shocking state and the scene so horrendous that police moved bodies away from public view and set up a makeshift mortuary in a side alley.
Constable Alan Palmer, who had been in the RUC for just a year when the bomb exploded, recalled the horrific scenes he witnessed when the bomb exploded as police were trying to evacuate the town centre.
Constable Palmer said: "There was carnage. It was a battlefield, it was horrendous.
"There was mayhem, people screaming and running around with body parts."
Constable Louise Stewart broke down as she told how words could never describe the horrific scenes she had witnessed that day.
Recalling how she raced towards the scene of the explosion from the checkpoint she had been manning near the courthouse, she said: "The place was strewn with debris, strewn with bodies and parts of bodies - it was just so horrific."
Constable Geoffrey Eakin was one of those put in charge of the dead at the makeshift mortuary.
He said: "We were each allocated three bodies to remain with. I was with those numbered seven, eight and nine - two of the bodies were women and the third a small child."
All of the officers told of being alerted to a bomb having been planted at the courthouse, not where it exploded.
In his cross-examination, Brett Lockhart QC questioned the officers about the time they had received the bomb warning and the discrepancies about its exact location.
The five accused - Michael McKevitt, Seamus Daly, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus McKenna - were not in court and will not be providing evidence. They all deny involvement in the bombing.
The men are being sued by relatives of some of the victims of the August 1998 atrocity which killed 29 people and unborn twins.
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/1938
Published Date: 10-Apr-08
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