A 35-year-old man is to be charged in the coming weeks with murdering 29 people and unborn twin girls in the "Real IRA" Omagh bombing of 1998, it has emerged.
The Director of Public Prosecutions in the North has recommended that Seán Gerard Hoey, from Jonesborough in south Armagh, who is on remand in Maghaberry Prison in Northern Ireland on a variety of terrorist charges, should be charged with the bombing.
Security and other well-placed sources last night confirmed a Press Association report of the major breakthrough in the PSNI and Garda investigation into the worst single atrocity of the Troubles.
Papers detailing the charges are due to be served on Mr Hoey, an electrician, in the coming weeks, the sources revealed. He will be the first person to be charged in Northern Ireland with the bombing.
The case will be one of the biggest mass murder trials in British and Irish legal history. It could last six months or more. Among the scores of people giving evidence will be Garda officers involved in the Southern element of the investigation.
It could delay a civil case being taken by the Omagh families against five men - including jailed "Real IRA" leader Michael McKevitt - they believe were also behind the attack.
Mr Hoey, who has been in custody since September 2003, previously failed to be released on bail pending his trial on 18 charges involving explosives and membership of the "Real IRA". At one hearing last year the prosecution lawyer said that Mr Hoey was almost certain to charged with the bombing.
Mr Hoey denies involvement in a series of "Real IRA" bombings leading up to the no-warning Omagh blast of August 15th, 1998. These include conspiring to cause explosions at a police station in Armagh, in nearby Blackwatertown and in Banbridge, Co Down in the run-up to the Omagh attack.
He is also charged with possession of a timer power unit between March 1997 and August 16th 1998 - the day after the Omagh bombing.
The DPP's decision that Mr Hoey should be charged with the Omagh bombing comes after a complex 18-month review of all the forensic evidence by scientists from Toronto, New York and Switzerland.
The PSNI said last night, "The Omagh inquiry is very much a live investigation to which police continue to dedicate significant time and resources. The current position is that the senior investigating officer has received instructions from the DPP which are being processed."
Dundalk builder Colm Murphy, whom the Press Association described as an uncle of Mr Hoey, was the only person convicted in connection with the bombing.
Mr Murphy has been granted a retrial in the Republic's Court of Criminal Appeal after doubt was cast on the evidence of two Garda officers during his original trial.