UH/2016

Men held liable for Omagh bomb to appeal civil case verdict

BY RONAN McSHERRY
THE appeal brought by four men held responsible for the Omagh bomb atrocity may be deferred from the date fixed in January next year.
Dissident republicans, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Seamus Daly and Colm Murphy were found liable in the civil court for the Real IRA bombing that claimed the lives of 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, in August 1998.
Families of six of the victims launched the action at the High Court in Belfast last year after the failure of the police to secure a criminal conviction over the bombing. The only man to face criminal charges over the Omagh killings, Sean Hoey, 38, from Jonesborough, South Armagh, was acquitted in December 2007.
Mr Justice Morgan awarded more than £1.6 million in damages to the 12 named relatives who took the action.
Following the verdict last June, Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan died in the bombing, described the judgement as, "a tremendous moral victory for the families."
The families also stated that monetary awards were always secondary and that they simply wanted the guilty men named in public. Mr Gallagher predicted, "We will never collect a penny."
The four men are now in the process of appealing the decision but this week a lawyer for one of them indicated a hearing planned for January may have to be put back.
Their planned challenges to the verdict were originally in doubt until they were all granted legal aid earlier this year.
The potential hold-up is due to material being sought in a bid to help overturn the original findings.
After being updated on Monday, Lord Justice Higgins has stated that if there is to be an application to vacate the date for which the appeal is presently fixed, it will have to be made in the first half of November.
Lawyers on both sides were told to meet again later this week in an attempt to finalise indexes of material they will seek to rely on.