Omagh bomb suspect photo inappropriate, court told
A photograph of one of five men accused of carrying out the Omagh bombing stuck out like a sore thumb in an identification album, it was claimed in court today.
A barrister for Seamus Daly told the landmark civil court case that Polaroid images of 11 different men were put in a file alongside a picture of his client in a completely different format.
Dermot Fee QC maintained the move was inappropriate.
Daly and five other men are being sued for £14m (€m) by six families affected by the Real IRA (RIRA) blast which ripped through the Co Tyrone town on a busy Saturday afternoon in August 1998.
Alleged RIRA leader Michael McKevitt; Liam Campbell, said to be his number two; Colm Murphy; Seamus McKenna and Daly all deny any involvement in the explosion which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.
The District Court in Dublin heard allegations that Daly borrowed a mobile phone from Murphy and that its signal was traced travelling from south Armagh to Omagh and back on the day of the atrocity.
District Court Judge Conal Gibbons was also told records showed a telephone call was made from the borrowed mobile to Kilkenny man Denis O’Connor, who had previously being investigated by gardaí for tax fraud.
Gardaí arrested Mr O’Connor in Kilkenny on February 22, 1999, and drove him to Carrickmacross garda station in Co Monaghan.
Detective Sergeant Sean Grennan, of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, told the court when he showed the pictures to Mr O’Connor he identified Daly as the man he spoke to on the phone the day of the Omagh bombing.
Mr Fee asked the detective if it was appropriate to use 11 similar photographs with names on the back and one completely different kind of picture of a person gardaí wanted confirmed as a suspect.
“I was doing the best I could,” replied Det Sgt Grennan.
The garda said he was asked to create an album of eight or more men who resembled the suspect and show them to the witness.
He told the court that because Daly had been arrested for a serious crime – the unlawful possession of explosives – an official photographer had taken his pictures while the other men were questioned for minor offences and had been photographed on a Polaroid camera.
“There was no other picture available,” he said.
“If there was I would have put it in the album.
“I compiled the album with the photographs that I had available at the time.
“I didn’t think it was inappropriate. I had no concerns.”
Mr Fee asked the detective did he not feel the picture stuck out “like a proverbial sore thumb?”.
“I did not think it stuck out like a sore thumb,” he replied.
The groundbreaking action is the first time the victims of terrorism are confronting the alleged perpetrators and the first time evidence from a Northern Ireland case has been heard in the Republic of Ireland.
Garda testimonies are being heard by Judge Gibbons in the presence of Mr Justice Morgan, who has presided over the case in Belfast Crown Court but had no judicial powers in Dublin.
