FOUR OF the five men being sued by families of Omagh bomb victims were yesterday found liable for the dissident republican atrocity.
In a landmark ruling at the High Court in Belfast, Mr Justice Morgan awarded combined damages of more than £1.6 million (€1.85 million) to the relatives who brought a lawsuit against those they held responsible for Northern Ireland’s worst terrorist massacre.
The judge made findings against Michael McKevitt, the jailed Real IRA leader, and his alleged second-in-command, Liam Campbell. Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly were also held liable for the August 1998 attack which killed 29 people, including the mother of unborn twins, and injured hundreds more. The case against a fifth defendant, Seamus McKenna, was dismissed.
In a judgment which took an hour and 40 minutes to summarise, Mr Justice Morgan declared that those who were members of the Real IRA’s army council at the time of the bombing bear responsibility for directing the attack.
The ruling followed a year-long civil trial which made legal history. It was the first time anywhere in the world where alleged members of a terrorist grouping have been sued by the bereaved. With no one convicted for the bombing, the families turned to a civil action where the burden of proof is lower than in the criminal courts.
In finding against McKevitt – a former Provisional IRA quartermaster who defected in the run-up to the signing of the Belfast Agreement in Northern Ireland in 1998 – Mr Justice Morgan held the availability of materials to prepare the bomb could only have taken place with his support and approval.
The judge said: “I conclude that he is liable in trespass to the plaintiffs on the basis that he intended that the bomb should explode and he foresaw the likely consequence of personal injury, particularly having regard to the nature of the time allowed for clearance. In any event I consider that by virtue of this leadership role, he is liable as aiding, counselling and directing the commission of the tort.
According to Mr Justice Morgan, there was “cogent evidence” that Campbell, a Co Louth-based farmer currently in custody while Lithuanian authorities seek to have him extradited over an alleged plot to smuggle arms into Ireland, was a member of the Real IRA’s army council at the time of the Omagh bomb. Campbell was the only defendant without legal representation at the trial, having instructed his solicitors to come off record.
Turning to Murphy, a builder and publican from Dundalk, Co Louth, Mr Justice Morgan said the only reasonable inference based on the evidence was that he supplied the phones used by the bombers knowing full well the nature of the attack.
Daly, a builder from Culaville, Co Monaghan, was also held liable based on evidence linking him to the phone used in the bomb run.
Only McKenna, a labourer from Co Armagh, was found not to be liable for the outrage.
Mr Justice Morgan said “It is unsurprising that the plaintiffs should be of the view that it was the specific intention of those who caused the detonation of this bomb that there should be massive death and injury. Although not satisfied that there was any such specific intention, I recognise that the likelihood of injury or death occurring was plain in circumstances where a fully loaded car bomb was placed in the centre of a busy market town on a Saturday afternoon.”