AN INVESTIGATION by the Police Ombudsman which cleared two officers of deliberately deceiving the Omagh bomb trial has prompted a storm of criticism of the courts and the public prosecutor.
Trial judge Mr Justice Weir had said officers Fiona Cooper and Phillip Marshall had been involved in a “deliberate and calculated deception” during the trial of Sean Hoey, who was cleared of 58 terrorist charges linked to the bombing. They had given evidence relating to another bomb incident to which the Omagh case was supposedly related.
The issue was passed to the Police Ombudsman for further investigation. Al Hutchinson reported, however, that his investigators had “found no evidence to support a deliberate and calculated deception by any officers involved in the preparation of evidence for the trial. Mr Hutchinson told the BBC: “The judge interpreted the evidence, I’m saying that he interpreted it wrongly – we have evidence that he interpreted it wrongly.
“But it’s also understandable the trial judge came to the conclusion that he simply did not know whether he could believe the officers or not.” Mr Hutchinson added there was no evidence to support defence claims that police officers “beefed up” statements given during the trial.
“If, by the term ‘beefing up’, it is meant to suggest that police officers added untrue information to their statements, then we have found no evidence that police statements were ‘beefed up’ by the two officers in question or by any others,” he reported.
“We did find, however, that factually correct information was added to statements. I must also conclude that the two police officers were confused in the evidence they gave to the court.”
Mr Hutchinson’s office provided a file on its investigation to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS). In a statement yesterday the service said it had “concluded that there is insufficient evidence to meet the test for prosecution against either officer in respect of an offence of perjury”.
The SDLP said the PPS was at fault and Sinn Féin said that only a full cross-Border inquiry would establish the truth about the Omagh bombing.
Sean Hoey’s lawyer said yesterday he has been instructed to launch judicial review proceedings against Mr Hutchinson as a result of his findings.Mr Hoey and his legal team have concerns with how the ombudsman reached his assessment. Solicitor Kevin Winters, whose Belfast-based firm acted for Mr Hoey during the trial, said they were now considering legal proceedings.