The Special Criminal Court yesterday refused a defence application to dismiss the case against Mr Colm Murphy, the only person to be charged in connection with the 1998 Omagh bombing.
The court also criticised two garda∅ and said they were "discredited witnesses" because of the falsification of interview notes with Mr Murphy, and ruled that evidence of their interviews was inadmissible. Mr Justice Barr said the conduct of the two garda∅ was "outrageous".
Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, for Mr Murphy, had asked the court at the conclusion of the prosecution case to withdraw the case against his client and discharge him because there was insufficient evidence against him.
But the three judges at the nonjury court dismissed the application and Mr O'Higgins then told the court that Mr Murphy would not be giving evidence.
Mr O'Higgins called two expert witnesses, Dr John Peter French and Mr Kim Harry Hughes, who gave evidence of their examinations of the interview notes.
The court is due to hear closing submissions in the trial today from the defence and the prosecution.
It was the 21st day of the trial of Mr Murphy (49), a father of four, building contractor and publican who is a native of Co Armagh with an address at Jordan's Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiring in Dundalk with another person not before the court to cause an explosion in the State or elsewhere between August 13th and 16th, 1998.
The prosecution is alleging that Mr Murphy lent his mobile phone and another mobile phone he obtained from an innocent party to the people who planted the Omagh bomb.
Earlier in the trial, Det Garda James B. Hanley told the court that Mr Murphy had admitted in interviews that he lent his mobile phone to known republicans, knowing it would be used to help in moving bombs.
Giving the court's ruling on the defence application to throw out the case, Mr Justice Barr, presiding, said that the prosecution case primarily depended on alleged admissions made by Mr Murphy in the course of 15 interviews with three teams of detectives at Monaghan Garda Station in February 1999.
The judge said that notes of an interview carried out by Det Garda Liam Donnelly and Det Garda John Fahy on February 22nd were subjected to a test by Det Garda Geraldine Butler, who was a prosecution witness but who was not questioned by the prosecution.
The notes had been made by Det Garda Donnelly and it was alleged that they were read over to Mr Murphy but he refused to sign them.
The first page was written on both sides and the second page was written on one side.
Det Garda Butler's professional opinion was that page three of the two sheets of foolscap paper on which the interview notes had been written had been rewritten.
The judge said the court was satisfied that Det Garda Donnelly was "guilty of patent falsification" of the note by inserting into it reference to an alleged family relationship between the accused's wife and another woman. This woman's brother was a person allegedly closely associated with a known terrorist believed by garda∅ to have been involved in the Omagh bombing.
"It is inconceivable that the accused would have confirmed a family relationship that in fact did not exist," the judge said.
The judge said that once Det Garda Donnelly had ascertained that he had inserted a demonstrable falsehood, he would have realised that this information would not have been confirmed by the accused.
This necessitated a rewriting of the third page of the notes and having the expurgated version signed by Det Garda Fahy.
The judge said that Det Gardai Fahy and Donnelly had been involved in "persistent lying on oath" under cross examination.
He said their conduct was "outrageous" and added that it "taints the prosecution and has consequences which extend beyond the interview notes".
The judge said the two garda∅ were "discredited witnesses" and ruled their evidence as inadmissible. But the court also found that there was no evidence to suggest that any of the other interrogators had complicity or knowledge of the falsification of t he note.
"Misbehaviour by one team does not impugn the propriety or reliability of other interrogators," he added.
The trial continues today.