Posted on 09/25/2006 11:28:19 AM PDT by Irish_Thatcherite
Omagh bombing trial gets started DNA evidence links man to 1998 massacre, court is told
By Jonathan McCambridge
25 September 2006 The trial of the man accused of murdering 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bomb massacre finally got under way today.
Belfast Crown Court was told that DNA and fibre evidence could connect 37-year-old Sean Hoey to the no-warning Real IRA explosion and a number of other dissident republican attacks.
Hoey, from Molly Rd, Jonesborough, who denies a total of 58 terrorist offences, sat in the dock in Court 12, guarded by two court officials, as the Diplock trial started.
A number of relatives of Omagh bomb victims were in the public gallery of the court while others attended a live video link set up in Omagh College.
Opening the trial, which is expected to last four months, prosecution barrister Gordon Kerr QC said dissident republicans had carried out a violent series of explosions after the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, including the Omagh bombing.
He said: "The prosecution will say that both DNA evidence and fibre evidence connecting the defendant to this series of attacks will show his involvement in them and that the totality of the evidence will persuade the court of his criminal involvement in the connected series of explosions."
Photographs showing the devastation that the bomb caused in Omagh were shown to the court and a full list of the 29 victims was read out.
Mr Kerr told the court: "On 15 August 1998 a vehicle bomb exploded in Market Street in Omagh, it was a Saturday and the town was busy with shoppers.
"The explosion had a devastating effect, 29 people were killed, one of whom, Avril Ann Monaghan, was pregnant with twins who were also killed.
"There were hundreds of casualties, many of whom sustained severe and permanent injuries, and severe trauma was caused throughout the community. It will be obvious that the town itself suffered severe property damage and economic disruption."
Mr Kerr told the court that three bomb warnings had been issued, using the dissident republican code word, 'Martha Pope'.
He said the court would hear evidence from a number of police officers who were involved in clearing the area as the device exploded.
He said: "All of them were in position when the explosion occurred and will describe the horrific injuries that they observed and the assistance that they gave to injured people.
"It will be the prosecution case that the warnings given were wrong and so lacking in detail as to be meaningless.
"In fact, it will be submitted that it is proper to infer that the warnings, as given, were such as to make it inevitable that any evacuation was likely to be away from the court house and given the topography, the police were going to evacuate to the area they did, and that inevitably placed the public present on that day in the area where the bomb had been planted," said Mr Kerr.
"The court will be asked to compare the warnings given in the Omagh case with those given using the same code word in two other town centre car bombs in Lisburn and Banbridge.
"In both these cases the premises at which the bombs had been left were correctly identified and the type of car the bomb was contained in was also given. "The prosecution will say that if the bombers genuinely wished to avoid the certain deaths and injury which they knew would occur by placing a large car bomb on a busy shopping street, they could easily have given the description of the vehicle and an accurate description of its location, as had been done before. In fact, they did neither."
The barrister went on to say that the court would be told that tons of remains and debris were collected and recovered after the explosion for forensic tests.
At hearing
There actually were two warnings but they gave the wrong street I believe. Their intelligence had warnings too but never did anything so as not to screw up the peace process.
Terrorism ping.
It is believed, in fact, that the warnings deliberately drew the crowd of people into the bomb blast.
If you mean the authorities, it's possible - there certainly does not seem to be a limit on the amount of appeasement given to the IRA and it's splinter/sub rosa groups.
First line:
"The Real IRA isn't really the IRA! They have nothing to do with the IRA at all!"
It's my experience that they keep away from threads with 'Omagh' in the title - they'll have difficulty doublethinking their way around this one!
Good luck on that one.
I know... we have ours now constitutionally prohibited.
The warning wasnt specific enough..warned about the courthouse and the portion cordoned off was not in the correct direction to get the people away from the car. Scumbags..the real IRA!
Absolutely!
Glad none of my family were into that!
I know what you mean - imagine getting caught up in the ideological mumbo-jumbo of Hibernofascism, and then discover you are expected to plant a bomb!
Ill leave that to the muslims!
Good idea.. leave it to the Religion of Peace!
The bomb was bought and paid for by US dollars raised in the bars of 'the good ole Usa' you've got to love the war on terror huh?
Yes the IRA fund raising.
Yes, you can be sure some of the NORAID money goes to so called splinter groups.
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