by Ronan McSherry
The ninth week of the Omagh bomb civil case, which has returned to Dublin, has heard barristers for the five men being sued accuse gardai detectives of 'bending the rules' during their investigations.
Six families are suing five dissident republicans they believe are responsible for bombing on August 15, 1998 when 29 people and unborn twins lost their lives while hundreds more were injured. Michael McKevitt, Colm Murphy, Liam Campbell, Seamus Daly and Seamus McKenna deny liability. The families have sought recourse to a civil action as they believe no-one will ever be convicted in a criminal court of law. The Omagh families are seeking punitive and exemplary damages in this court action.
On Monday Detective Garda James Hanley rejected claims that officers inserted stock Garda phrases into statements. Dermot Fee QC, for Colm Murphy, told the landmark civil action that similar statements appeared in the transcript of notes taken by the retired officer in other high-profile court cases in the Republic.
Murphy (56) was convicted in connection with the Omagh bomb in 2002 but later had his conviction overturned following claims that two officers lied during the trial. During a subsequent trial of detective Gardai John Fahy and Liam Donnell a judge directed they be cleared of perjury, forgery and using a forged document on the grounds the forged interview notes and technical analysis of them were inadmissible.
Mr Fee also raised concerns over why interviews were not tape recorded and queried why there were only a small number of notes from interviews which were up to four hours long.
The defence barrister said, "Mr Murphy says he made no incriminating admissions or remarks at any time during his interview. What he says happened here is more has been added on to the interview notes by the gardai."
Mr Fee accused the officers of concocting admissions in order to make Murphy liable for the atrocity. Mr Hanley replied, "I deny that happened."
Mr Fee also alleged that Hanley bent the rules when investigating other serious crimes He revealed a judge previously criticised him during the conviction of notorious drug dealer John Gilligan. The retired officer had conceded that he had not kept a record of several meetings he had with two key witnesses. Mr Fee suggested to Hanley that Colm Murphy did not say he knew 'those fellas' (who used his mobile phone the day of the Omagh bomb) were involved in moving bombs to the North to bomb targets. Murphy is also quoted as telling gardai that he was cooperating with them as a sign he was responsible for his actions but that others were responsible for the disaster.
"At no time did he make this comment," said Mr Fee.
Mr Hanley replied, "He certainly did."
The trial continues.
