BOMB SUSPECT ON TRIAL
Bomb suspect on trial
BY DIARMAID MAC DERMOTT
A BUILDING contractor "lent his aid" to people who planted the Omagh bomb in August 1998 in which 29 people were killed and hundreds injured the Special Criminal Court in Dublin was told when at the trial of Colm Murphy, the only man charged in connection with the bombing opended.
Prosecuting counsel Mr Peter Charleton SC said that Colm Murphy aided in terms of setting the bomb without necessarily knowing where it was going to be set off.
He said that Murphy had supplied "something useful" for an earlier bomb in Banbridge Co Down on August 1st 1998 where no lives were lost and that he "knowingly lent his aid to persons whom he knew were doing a bombing run. As it happened the run was to Omagh."
After the trial opened Murphy's counsel Mr Michael O'Higgins SC objected to evidence relating to the Omagh bombing before the prosecution had established the nature of the alleged conspiracy to which his client belonged. "It is our case that Omagh has no place in this case at all," he said.
Colm Murphy(49) a father of four, building contractor and publican who is a native of Co Armagh with an address at Jordan's Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth has pleaded not guilty to conspiring in Dundalk with another person not before the court to cause an explosion in the State or elsewhere between August 13th and 16th, 1998.
Opening the prosecution case Mr Charleton said that the offence of conspiracy was complete when agreement was reached between the conspirators. He said that explosions in Banbridge, Co Down on August 1st 1998 and in Omagh on August 15th 1998 show the groundwork upon which the conspiracy was laid.
He said that having aided an enterprise which resulted in an explosion on August 1st the occurrence of a further explosion becomes a likely matter in the mind of the accused when his aid was called upon again.
Mr Charleton said conspiracy is "a criminal wrong" that does not require a proximate act. "When two people join in a common enterprise to commit a criminal offence the criminal offence is thereby completed," he said. The offence is complete by the collaboration of two or more people to carry out an unlawful act.
"The prosecution here allege that Mr Murphy entered into a common goal with other persons not before the court to further a certain aim which was the perpetration of an explosion similar to that in Banbridge which was likely to cause injury to property or endanger life."
Mr Charleton said that Murphy "knowingly lent his aid to persons whom he knew were doing a bombing run. As it happened the run was to Omagh. As it happened there was a terrible loss of life in Omagh something that was absent in Banbridge."
He said that the accused having lent his aid, became complicit in the agreement and responsible and amenable in law to the charge laid against him.
He said that on August 1st, 1998 at 4.11 pm an RUC Inspector received a warning that there was going to be a car bomb in Banbridge, Co Down in a red Vauxhall Cavalier car. "That is both relevant, probative and essential to the prosecution case," he said.
He said that when one sets off a bomb in a public place one places either people out shopping or the police in danger. At 4.31 pm a 500lbs bomb detonated, injuring 35 civilians and 3 police officers. "There is no doubt that in clearing the streets the RUC acted with the greatest courage in the furtherance of their duty to protect the public," he added.
Mr Charleton said that the prosecution case is that the accused not only knew about this bombing but had aided in it. He said that Mr Murphy's aid was called upon again in relation to another bomb and he willingly lent his aid to another bomb which was likely to cause loss of life.
He said the accused was not present in Omagh and did not carry the bomb there. The inference is that he aided in terms of setting the bomb without necessarily knowing where it was going to be set off.
Mr Charleton said that evidence recovered from the Omagh bomb indicated that a Vauxhall Cavalier was used in the bombing. A damaged time and power unit, toggle switch, three batteries and lengths of wire were also recovered and there was at least one booster charge.
The car was stolen from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan on August 13th and was fitted with false number plates which copied the registration of a legitimate vehicle.
He said that on the day of the Omagh bombing RUC Sergeant Martin Miller received a message at 2.34 pm that a warning had been received in Belfast that a bomb was to go off in thirty minutes near the courthouse in Omagh and the caller had used the codeword "Martha Pope" the same codeword used in the Banbridge bombing.
At 2.36 Sgt Miller received another message that the bomb was not near the courthouse but was 200 yards from there. The warnings were relayed to police officers on the ground who cleared roads around the courthouse but at the far end of Market St a huge bomb exploded at 15.05 pm.
The prosecution also allege that the aid which the accused had given was returned to him. Mr Charleton said the nature of the aid would be proved by forensic examination on the ground in relation to that aid.
He said that Murphy was arrested on February 21st 1999 and taken to Monaghan Garda Station where he was interviewed by detectives. Mr Charleton said that the prosecution allege there was a confession in this case but this would be challenged by the defence.
On Monday Garda Superintendent Thomas Flannery said he issued a search warrant relating to Murphy's house on February 20th, 1999.
He told prosecuting counsel Mr Tom O'Connell SC that an investigation had been based in Carrickmacross since the Omagh bombing on August 15th, 1998 and into the stealing of a car used in the bombing.
Based on information gathered by the investigation team he had reasonable grounds for believing that evidence relating to the offence would be found at Murphy's house. He said he had information that a telephone which was the property of Murphy could be put in Omagh on August 15th and there was also the possibility that documents relating to the phone would be found on his property.
Cross examined by defence counsel Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, the Superintendent said that Murphy was arrested for possession of explosives in Dundalk between August 13th and 15th, 1998. He said that Murphy had said he was not in Omagh on the day of the bombing and had given names to the gardai to back up his story and also initially denied giving his phone to anybody.
"I was aware that there was information about Mr Murphy's phone and that it could be placed in Omagh on the day of the explosion," he added. The Superintendent said that garda information was the bomb had been assembled in the Carrickmacross, Dundalk, South Armagh area.
"We were aware that certain people in that area had been involved in bombmaking previous to that. Our information was that the same people had been involved in the Omagh bomb," he added.
Superintendent Flannery referred to incidents which happened in Dundalk involving Murphy's associates and said that "quite a number of circumstances" pointed in the direction that Murphy and others were involved in certain incidents.
Asked if Murphy was arrested simply because of the information that his mobile phone was in Omagh, the Superintendent said that gardai had suspicions in relation to his involvement because of his associates and their involvement in other incidents in the Dundalk area.
Earlier Sergeant Martin Miller said he was working as a communications officer at the RUC station in Omagh when he received a message on his computer at 2.34 pm. The message came from the RUC's Belfast Regional Control and came up on his computer screen.
The message said there was a bomb to go off in thirty minutes at the courthouse on Main Street, 500 pounds, and had the codeword
Malta(stet) Pope."
Sergeant Miller said he informed the duty Sergeant about the warning and relayed the information to RUC officers on the ground and told them to start clearing the town.
He said that one or two minutes after the first message he received a telephone call from the RUC in Coleraine about a bomb in Omagh. After talking to an RUC officer in Coleraine two bomb warnings appeared at the same time on his computer screen.
He also got a telephone call from the Belfast Regional Control giving a fifteen minute warning.
Sergeant Miller said"At approximately 3.05 pm I heard a large explosion." He said there was no communications power then and the computers and telephones went off line.
Cross examined by Murphy's counsel Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, the Sergeant agreed that the original warning was sent to a receptionist at UTV in Belfast who had then contacted the RUC. The Sergeant said that the later warning came from the Samaritans and he agreed that the warning used a different codeword "Martha Pope" than the warning to UTV.
Sergeant Philip Marshall of the RUC in Omagh said that he had difficulty clearing premises near the courthouse after the initial bomb warning. He said he and other officers cleared High Street but did not locate any suspicious vehicle. He said he witnessed the bomb going off in Market St.
He said he was not familiar with codewords but all bomb warnings were taken seriously.
The Special Criminal Court on Tuesday ruled that the media should not report evidence from a "trial within a trial" in the case of Murphy.
Mr Justice Robert Barr presiding said"It would be patently unjust for information to be furnished to the public at large by the media which ultimately may transpire to be inadmissible or quite wrong. It would be unjust that that should happen."
The three judges made the order on Tuesday afternoon after a submission by Mr Murphy's counsel Mr Michael O'Higgins SC. The court embarked on a "voir dire" - an oral hearing to decide on legal issues within the trial - on Monday.
Making the order, Mr Justice Barr said that the court had a dual function that of judges and jury. At the moment it was exercising its judicial function in deciding on the validity of evidence presented during the voir dire.
He said that it was the long established practice in both the Central Criminal Court and the Circuit Criminal Court that evidence given in the absence of a jury during a voir dire was not reported by the press.
The judge said that it was in the interests of justice to make the order because evidence can be adduced that is admissible in the narrow field to determine the validity of a suspicion that a police officer may have to justify the arrest of an accused which may not be admissible in the trial of the arrested person.
He said that was the distinction the court must draw. "It would be wrong if any such evidence given should be published at large where it would be regarded as being indicative of guilt or otherwise."
Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Peter Charleton SC said he had sought instructions and his client's instructions were that he should not seek such an order and he did not have any function in relation to the order.
Mr O'Higgins applied for the order "in the interests of fairness." He said that by publishing unsubstantiated opinions had a potential to be unfair to his client.
Evidence in the "trial within a trial" continued on Wednesday and is expected to last until the end of the week.
BY DIARMAID MAC DERMOTT
A BUILDING contractor "lent his aid" to people who planted the Omagh bomb in August 1998 in which 29 people were killed and hundreds injured the Special Criminal Court in Dublin was told when at the trial of Colm Murphy, the only man charged in connection with the bombing opended.
Prosecuting counsel Mr Peter Charleton SC said that Colm Murphy aided in terms of setting the bomb without necessarily knowing where it was going to be set off.
He said that Murphy had supplied "something useful" for an earlier bomb in Banbridge Co Down on August 1st 1998 where no lives were lost and that he "knowingly lent his aid to persons whom he knew were doing a bombing run. As it happened the run was to Omagh."
After the trial opened Murphy's counsel Mr Michael O'Higgins SC objected to evidence relating to the Omagh bombing before the prosecution had established the nature of the alleged conspiracy to which his client belonged. "It is our case that Omagh has no place in this case at all," he said.
Colm Murphy(49) a father of four, building contractor and publican who is a native of Co Armagh with an address at Jordan's Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth has pleaded not guilty to conspiring in Dundalk with another person not before the court to cause an explosion in the State or elsewhere between August 13th and 16th, 1998.
Opening the prosecution case Mr Charleton said that the offence of conspiracy was complete when agreement was reached between the conspirators. He said that explosions in Banbridge, Co Down on August 1st 1998 and in Omagh on August 15th 1998 show the groundwork upon which the conspiracy was laid.
He said that having aided an enterprise which resulted in an explosion on August 1st the occurrence of a further explosion becomes a likely matter in the mind of the accused when his aid was called upon again.
Mr Charleton said conspiracy is "a criminal wrong" that does not require a proximate act. "When two people join in a common enterprise to commit a criminal offence the criminal offence is thereby completed," he said. The offence is complete by the collaboration of two or more people to carry out an unlawful act.
"The prosecution here allege that Mr Murphy entered into a common goal with other persons not before the court to further a certain aim which was the perpetration of an explosion similar to that in Banbridge which was likely to cause injury to property or endanger life."
Mr Charleton said that Murphy "knowingly lent his aid to persons whom he knew were doing a bombing run. As it happened the run was to Omagh. As it happened there was a terrible loss of life in Omagh something that was absent in Banbridge."
He said that the accused having lent his aid, became complicit in the agreement and responsible and amenable in law to the charge laid against him.
He said that on August 1st, 1998 at 4.11 pm an RUC Inspector received a warning that there was going to be a car bomb in Banbridge, Co Down in a red Vauxhall Cavalier car. "That is both relevant, probative and essential to the prosecution case," he said.
He said that when one sets off a bomb in a public place one places either people out shopping or the police in danger. At 4.31 pm a 500lbs bomb detonated, injuring 35 civilians and 3 police officers. "There is no doubt that in clearing the streets the RUC acted with the greatest courage in the furtherance of their duty to protect the public," he added.
Mr Charleton said that the prosecution case is that the accused not only knew about this bombing but had aided in it. He said that Mr Murphy's aid was called upon again in relation to another bomb and he willingly lent his aid to another bomb which was likely to cause loss of life.
He said the accused was not present in Omagh and did not carry the bomb there. The inference is that he aided in terms of setting the bomb without necessarily knowing where it was going to be set off.
Mr Charleton said that evidence recovered from the Omagh bomb indicated that a Vauxhall Cavalier was used in the bombing. A damaged time and power unit, toggle switch, three batteries and lengths of wire were also recovered and there was at least one booster charge.
The car was stolen from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan on August 13th and was fitted with false number plates which copied the registration of a legitimate vehicle.
He said that on the day of the Omagh bombing RUC Sergeant Martin Miller received a message at 2.34 pm that a warning had been received in Belfast that a bomb was to go off in thirty minutes near the courthouse in Omagh and the caller had used the codeword "Martha Pope" the same codeword used in the Banbridge bombing.
At 2.36 Sgt Miller received another message that the bomb was not near the courthouse but was 200 yards from there. The warnings were relayed to police officers on the ground who cleared roads around the courthouse but at the far end of Market St a huge bomb exploded at 15.05 pm.
The prosecution also allege that the aid which the accused had given was returned to him. Mr Charleton said the nature of the aid would be proved by forensic examination on the ground in relation to that aid.
He said that Murphy was arrested on February 21st 1999 and taken to Monaghan Garda Station where he was interviewed by detectives. Mr Charleton said that the prosecution allege there was a confession in this case but this would be challenged by the defence.
On Monday Garda Superintendent Thomas Flannery said he issued a search warrant relating to Murphy's house on February 20th, 1999.
He told prosecuting counsel Mr Tom O'Connell SC that an investigation had been based in Carrickmacross since the Omagh bombing on August 15th, 1998 and into the stealing of a car used in the bombing.
Based on information gathered by the investigation team he had reasonable grounds for believing that evidence relating to the offence would be found at Murphy's house. He said he had information that a telephone which was the property of Murphy could be put in Omagh on August 15th and there was also the possibility that documents relating to the phone would be found on his property.
Cross examined by defence counsel Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, the Superintendent said that Murphy was arrested for possession of explosives in Dundalk between August 13th and 15th, 1998. He said that Murphy had said he was not in Omagh on the day of the bombing and had given names to the gardai to back up his story and also initially denied giving his phone to anybody.
"I was aware that there was information about Mr Murphy's phone and that it could be placed in Omagh on the day of the explosion," he added. The Superintendent said that garda information was the bomb had been assembled in the Carrickmacross, Dundalk, South Armagh area.
"We were aware that certain people in that area had been involved in bombmaking previous to that. Our information was that the same people had been involved in the Omagh bomb," he added.
Superintendent Flannery referred to incidents which happened in Dundalk involving Murphy's associates and said that "quite a number of circumstances" pointed in the direction that Murphy and others were involved in certain incidents.
Asked if Murphy was arrested simply because of the information that his mobile phone was in Omagh, the Superintendent said that gardai had suspicions in relation to his involvement because of his associates and their involvement in other incidents in the Dundalk area.
Earlier Sergeant Martin Miller said he was working as a communications officer at the RUC station in Omagh when he received a message on his computer at 2.34 pm. The message came from the RUC's Belfast Regional Control and came up on his computer screen.
The message said there was a bomb to go off in thirty minutes at the courthouse on Main Street, 500 pounds, and had the codeword
Malta(stet) Pope."
Sergeant Miller said he informed the duty Sergeant about the warning and relayed the information to RUC officers on the ground and told them to start clearing the town.
He said that one or two minutes after the first message he received a telephone call from the RUC in Coleraine about a bomb in Omagh. After talking to an RUC officer in Coleraine two bomb warnings appeared at the same time on his computer screen.
He also got a telephone call from the Belfast Regional Control giving a fifteen minute warning.
Sergeant Miller said"At approximately 3.05 pm I heard a large explosion." He said there was no communications power then and the computers and telephones went off line.
Cross examined by Murphy's counsel Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, the Sergeant agreed that the original warning was sent to a receptionist at UTV in Belfast who had then contacted the RUC. The Sergeant said that the later warning came from the Samaritans and he agreed that the warning used a different codeword "Martha Pope" than the warning to UTV.
Sergeant Philip Marshall of the RUC in Omagh said that he had difficulty clearing premises near the courthouse after the initial bomb warning. He said he and other officers cleared High Street but did not locate any suspicious vehicle. He said he witnessed the bomb going off in Market St.
He said he was not familiar with codewords but all bomb warnings were taken seriously.
The Special Criminal Court on Tuesday ruled that the media should not report evidence from a "trial within a trial" in the case of Murphy.
Mr Justice Robert Barr presiding said"It would be patently unjust for information to be furnished to the public at large by the media which ultimately may transpire to be inadmissible or quite wrong. It would be unjust that that should happen."
The three judges made the order on Tuesday afternoon after a submission by Mr Murphy's counsel Mr Michael O'Higgins SC. The court embarked on a "voir dire" - an oral hearing to decide on legal issues within the trial - on Monday.
Making the order, Mr Justice Barr said that the court had a dual function that of judges and jury. At the moment it was exercising its judicial function in deciding on the validity of evidence presented during the voir dire.
He said that it was the long established practice in both the Central Criminal Court and the Circuit Criminal Court that evidence given in the absence of a jury during a voir dire was not reported by the press.
The judge said that it was in the interests of justice to make the order because evidence can be adduced that is admissible in the narrow field to determine the validity of a suspicion that a police officer may have to justify the arrest of an accused which may not be admissible in the trial of the arrested person.
He said that was the distinction the court must draw. "It would be wrong if any such evidence given should be published at large where it would be regarded as being indicative of guilt or otherwise."
Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Peter Charleton SC said he had sought instructions and his client's instructions were that he should not seek such an order and he did not have any function in relation to the order.
Mr O'Higgins applied for the order "in the interests of fairness." He said that by publishing unsubstantiated opinions had a potential to be unfair to his client.
Evidence in the "trial within a trial" continued on Wednesday and is expected to last until the end of the week.
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/0853
Published Date: 18-Oct-01
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