TWO GARDA detectives who interviewed Colm Murphy, who is accused in connection with the Omagh bombing, were cleared of perjury and forgery charges, the Special Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Det Supt John McMahon said Det Garda Liam Donnelly and Det Garda John Fahy were interviewed after the original trial of Colm Murphy heard expert evidence that their notes had been changed.
Supt McMahon said he and Det Chief Supt Cormac Gordon interviewed both detectives who denied any wrongdoing. A file was prepared for the DPP who directed that the two detectives should be charged with perjury and forgery.
Both men were found not guilty of the charges at the Circuit Criminal Court in October 2006, he said. Det Garda Donnelly has since died, he added.
It was the third day of the retrial of Colm Murphy who has pleaded not guilty to conspiring in Dundalk between August 13th and 16th, 1998, with another person to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in the State or elsewhere.
The prosecution is alleging that Mr Murphy lent his mobile phone and another phone to a man who used them while transporting the bomb in a stolen Vauxhall Cavalier car from Dundalk to Omagh; it also claims calls made from Mr Murphy’s phone from Omagh were consistent with the timing of the bombing.
Mr Murphy (57), a native of Co Armagh but with an address at Jordan’s Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth, was freed on bail in 2005 after the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed his original conviction.
Cross-examined by defence counsel Michael O’Higgins SC, Det Supt McMahon said the two detectives had not been arrested before they were interviewed.
Det Supt Mc Mahon denied a suggestion by Mr O’Higgins that the interview with Det Garda Donnelly was “utterly soft”. The trial continues today.