UH/1836

Omagh bomb attack accused refused bail
Fears that Hoey would flee South if freed
BY KATRINA TAGGART

OMAGH bomb suspect Sean Hoey has failed in his attempt to get bail while awaiting his trial next September. The electrician accused of murdering 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bombing has been refused his application for bail over fears he may flee the North.
A judge at Belfast Crown Court said he would not release Hoey, of Molly Road, Jonesborough, because he had tried to evade arrest in 2003.
Hoey 36, denies the Omagh charges and others connected to more Real IRA attacks, including one in 2001.
Mr Justice Weir said the allegations against him were too serious.
Hoey faces 58 terrorist charges involving 14 separate terrorist incidents, the most serious of which were the murders of the 29 Omagh victims and causing the explosion which claimed their lives.
Even though Hoey has been on remand for nearly 900 days, he now faces another seven months behind bars before standing trial in September for the Omagh car bomb atrocity.
REMAND
Although his defence argued that Hoey has been on remand eight times longer than any suspect in England can be held, Mr Justice Weir accepted Crown fears that he may not turn up for trial.
The judge's concerns were heightened by Hoey's bid to escape when he was seized at his home in September 2003."The conclusion I have reached is that there is a well-founded fear that if released on bail the applicant would fail to surrender to it," he said.
"He attempted to evade arrest and to hide himself when police came to arrest him the last time. The fact he lives close to the border, has family living there and has a history of employment in the Republic of Ireland, means he would find it more straightforward than others to establish himself in the Republic of Ireland if he chose to do so," the judge said.
SURETIES
Friends of the accused were prepared to lodge £50,000 in cash, a farm and land as sureties that he would not flee if released.
His mother, Rita, was also ready to hand over her total savings of £1,500 and put up the family home as assurance, Mr Justice Weir was told.
Mr Justice Weir said that of the remaining incidents the defence conceded, for the bail hearing, there were prima facia cases in three of them, including Altmore Forest, Dungannon.
Bail, he said, was being sought on the grounds that Hoey had been in custody for 880 days and that there was an inorderant delay in the case since he has applied for bail in April 2004.