UH/0743

Murphy entitled to bring contempt of court proceedings

DUBLIN Special Criminal Court this week ruled that the man accused of plotting the 1998 Omagh bomb was entitled to bring contempt of court proceedings against the BBC and the Daily Mail.
Building contractor and publican, Colm Murphy (48) 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 subsequent report in the Daily Mail.
The programme investigated the background to the Omagh bombing and made allegations about named individuals.
Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, 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.
The trial of Murphy, who was not in court for this week's hearing, is due to begin on October 9.
The father-of-four, who is a native of Co Armagh with an address at Jordan's Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth, 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 has been remanded on continuing bail of £50,000 until the trial.