Omagh accused to stand trial
Relatives of the Omagh bomb victims are bracing themselves for a harrowing new ordeal as the man accused of the North’s worst single terrorist atrocity goes on trial in Belfast tomorrow.
Sean Hoey, 36, from south Armagh, is charged with the murders of the 29 people killed in the no-warning bomb attack on the Co Tyrone town. The victims included a mother of unborn twins.
The case, among the biggest in both British and Irish legal history, could last for three months.
Belfast Crown Court will hear weeks of painstaking evidence as prosecution lawyers seek the first conviction in the North for the dissident republican terrorist outrage in August 1998.
Expert voice analysis and DNA evidence are expected to be central to the case.
For the families of those who died when the 500lb Real IRA car bomb tore through Omagh town centre without warning eight years ago, another painful ordeal lies ahead.
Stanley McCombe, whose wife, Ann, 48, was killed in the blast, admitted his anticipation was laced with dread.
He said: “It’s a day I have been waiting for, but yet I’m not looking forward to going near the court.
“It’s going to be tough watching somebody who is accused of being one of the instigators.
“But we have come through hell and high water before and if this is going to give us a little bit of peace then so be it.”
With no jury to be sworn in because of the laws governing terrorist trials in the North, the case against Hoey, of Molly Road, Jonesborough, Co Armagh, will be heard by Mr Justice Reg Weir.
The bombing, on a Saturday afternoon in mid-summer, represented the single worst atrocity in 30 years of violence in the North.
Hoey has been charged with the 29 murders among a total of 61 terrorist and explosive charges, all of which he denies.
The decision to prosecute him followed a marathon police investigation which has been mired in controversy.
A damning report by Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan was heavily critical of the initial police inquiry and the then Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan.
Warnings from two informants in the days before Omagh that a terrorist attack was planned for the North were not properly followed up, she found.
But amid all the intrigue over agents, the families have demanded justice for their loved ones.
Most of those living in Omagh will find it impossible to make the daily three-hour round trip for a trial that could last for months.
Requests have been made to set up a videolink system in the town for the duration of court proceedings.
Mr McCombe insisted everything possible should be done to facilitate the relatives: “The facilities are there, so why not? Anything else would mean at least a 12-hour day, with us leaving early in the morning.”
