by Ronan McSherry

The Omagh bomb trial has ended with the judge acknowledging he has a great deal to think about and a great deal of material to look at again.

Trial judge Mr Justice Weir reserved judgement in the case. A verdict is not expected for several weeks. The trial, which lasted 56 days, heard from hundreds of witnesses.

In his closing submission defence QC Orlando Pownall stated that it would be a travesty if Sean Hoey was convicted. Hoey(37), an electrician from Jonesborough, Co Armagh, denies a total of 56 charges, including 29 counts of murder as a result of the Omagh bombing.

Mr Pownall told Belfast Crown Court that the case against the defendant could not survive the taint of having witnesses "beef up their evidence, exhibits being interfered with and prosecution witnesses undermining one another."

Referring to the relatives and friends of those killed in the blast the defence lawyer said they "could not now dispassionately conclude that the man trumped is in truth responsible" for the devastating effects it has had on their and their families' lives.

In his remarks the defence also said that if Hoey were not facing such dreadful and serious a case as the Omagh bombing, but was accused of just one crime, the case would have been thrown out 'along with the bath water' before Christmas.

Concluding his submissions on Wednesday on the question of the exhibits he said, "This court will not, we trust, pay lip service to the integrity of exhibits."

Prosecuting QC Gordon Kerr began his submissions by attacking Hoey's failure to give evidence on his own behalf. He claimed there was no suggestion that Hoey was unfit to give evidence, and the inference could be drawn that there was a case for him to answer.

Mr Kerr suggested that one reason for not going into the witness box was because any innocent explanation he could give, "would not bear scrutiny and he is aware of that, and it is proper to infer that such an explanation is untrue."

The lawyer claimed that was not only an inference of Hoey's guilt but was also capable of providing corroboration for the DNA findings.

On Monday, the trial heard information from FBI spy David Rupert who had infiltrated dissident republican groups at the time of the 1998 atrocity. Mr Rupert stated that he named more than 100 members and associates of dissident republicans. However, Mr Hoey was not of them. Over the next four years he met organisers and leaders of both the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA.

In a document read in court on Monday, agreed by the prosecution and the defence, the FBI agent said he did meet people involved in terrorist attacks. These included an individual suspected by the police of involvement in the Omagh bombing. However, he never named Sean Hoey in the e-mails he sent to his handlers nor described him as being involved with dissident groups.

The FBI spy's information was said to be both accurate and reliable, the court was told.

The prosecution has said it believes that Hoey was involved not only in making bomb timers but in wiring up the bombs themselves for attacks in 1998. They said forensic evidence proves their case.