BURDEN OF EVIDENCE IN CIVIL ACTION LESS THAN CRIMINAL CASE
Burden of evidence in civil action less than criminal case
THE Omagh case is a multi-million pound civil action where the plaintiffs are seeking damages from those they claim are responsible for their injury and loss.
If the plaintiffs, namely the Omagh families win, the defendants will be branded as mass murderers, although the sanction imposed will be financial rather than penal. The prosecution has stated they would seek money not only from the five men but also from the Real IRA, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and the Irish Prisoners Welfare Association.
To secure a criminal conviction, it is necessary to prove a person is guilty beyond reasonable doubt. A civil action, such as a claim for damages, is instead decided on the balance of probabilities, which requires a much lower standard of proof.
A civil court is also less stringent in terms of what can be entered as evidence, and the families hope their legal team will be able to use that extra latitude to put as much information us possible about the attack into the public domain.
It is widely acknowledged by the families, lawyers and police officers that there is unlikely to be a criminal conviction in the case of the Omagh bomb.
In this civil action the prosecution seek to persuade the High Court Judge Mr Justice Morgan that Michael McKevitt, Colm Murphy, Liam Campbell, Seamus Daly and Seamus McKenna were responsible for the atrocity. The five defendants strenuously deny the allegations.
The High Court in Belfast has been specially adapted for the hearing with three video screens installed along with cabinets to hold hundreds of files belonging to the legal teams for a case which is expected to last up to eight weeks.
Lord Brennan QC for the Omagh families told the court that the families legal team would present 'solid and wide ranging evidence which would fully expose the workings of the Real IRA and their leadership.'
The evidence will include forensics, bomb making techniques and the evidence of an FBI agent.
The prosecution also plans to introduce evidence of telephone matrix cell site analysis that is mobile phone calls, which showed that Seamus McKenna was in the car which took the bomb to Omagh and that Seamus Daly was in the car which scouted out the route from Dundalk to Tyrone.
Lord Brennan has claimed that Colm Murphy who is awaiting a retrial in the Republic on charges of conspiring to cause the Omagh explosion supplied phones to both McKenna and Daly.
There will also be statements from British and Irish police officers and statements from the FBI agent David Rupert who had infiltrated the Real IRA in the wake of Omagh.
The court was told he won't be giving evidence in this case because his life in under threat. The families plan to use information he supplied to his FBI handlers.
Rupert has told his handlers that at the time of the Omagh blast Michael McKevitt was the leader of the Real IRA and that his wife Bernadette Sands-McKevitt was number three with Liam Campbell number two.
Lord Brennan said it was 'inconceivable' that an attack on the scale of Omagh could have happened without their knowledge. A lawyer for McKevitt revealed he will try to block the use of evidence from the FBI double agent.
Defence lawyers have made it clear they will try to have much of the evidence being brought forward by the families legal team declared inadmissible.
THE Omagh case is a multi-million pound civil action where the plaintiffs are seeking damages from those they claim are responsible for their injury and loss.
If the plaintiffs, namely the Omagh families win, the defendants will be branded as mass murderers, although the sanction imposed will be financial rather than penal. The prosecution has stated they would seek money not only from the five men but also from the Real IRA, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and the Irish Prisoners Welfare Association.
To secure a criminal conviction, it is necessary to prove a person is guilty beyond reasonable doubt. A civil action, such as a claim for damages, is instead decided on the balance of probabilities, which requires a much lower standard of proof.
A civil court is also less stringent in terms of what can be entered as evidence, and the families hope their legal team will be able to use that extra latitude to put as much information us possible about the attack into the public domain.
It is widely acknowledged by the families, lawyers and police officers that there is unlikely to be a criminal conviction in the case of the Omagh bomb.
In this civil action the prosecution seek to persuade the High Court Judge Mr Justice Morgan that Michael McKevitt, Colm Murphy, Liam Campbell, Seamus Daly and Seamus McKenna were responsible for the atrocity. The five defendants strenuously deny the allegations.
The High Court in Belfast has been specially adapted for the hearing with three video screens installed along with cabinets to hold hundreds of files belonging to the legal teams for a case which is expected to last up to eight weeks.
Lord Brennan QC for the Omagh families told the court that the families legal team would present 'solid and wide ranging evidence which would fully expose the workings of the Real IRA and their leadership.'
The evidence will include forensics, bomb making techniques and the evidence of an FBI agent.
The prosecution also plans to introduce evidence of telephone matrix cell site analysis that is mobile phone calls, which showed that Seamus McKenna was in the car which took the bomb to Omagh and that Seamus Daly was in the car which scouted out the route from Dundalk to Tyrone.
Lord Brennan has claimed that Colm Murphy who is awaiting a retrial in the Republic on charges of conspiring to cause the Omagh explosion supplied phones to both McKenna and Daly.
There will also be statements from British and Irish police officers and statements from the FBI agent David Rupert who had infiltrated the Real IRA in the wake of Omagh.
The court was told he won't be giving evidence in this case because his life in under threat. The families plan to use information he supplied to his FBI handlers.
Rupert has told his handlers that at the time of the Omagh blast Michael McKevitt was the leader of the Real IRA and that his wife Bernadette Sands-McKevitt was number three with Liam Campbell number two.
Lord Brennan said it was 'inconceivable' that an attack on the scale of Omagh could have happened without their knowledge. A lawyer for McKevitt revealed he will try to block the use of evidence from the FBI double agent.
Defence lawyers have made it clear they will try to have much of the evidence being brought forward by the families legal team declared inadmissible.
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/1936
Published Date: 10-Apr-08
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