It took police controllers 10 minutes to alert officers in Northern Ireland to a bomb planted outside their station, a terrorism trial in Northern Ireland heard today.
Emergency call co-ordinator Constable Harold Crooks was unable to raise the alarm at Armagh Police Station in May 1998 because the phone line was busy, Belfast Crown Court heard.
Sean Hoey (37), denies a string of charges including involvement in the attack outside the Newry Road station. "I tried to phone Armagh Police Station but I could not get through. I had to contact Constable Gates at Drumadd Barracks," Constable Crooks said.
Army technical officers carried out a controlled explosion on the 500lb bomb, which was in a car parked outside the Newry Road station.
Mr Justice Weir observed: "It took him 10 minutes to make contact with anybody." The bomb warning was telephoned by a male caller using a recognised codeword from a phone box in Culloville, County Armagh.
Hoey, from Molly Road, Jonesborough, denies 58 charges, including the separate offences of murdering 29 people in Omagh in August 1998.
The dissident republican bombing produced the highest death toll in a single day of the Northern Ireland conflict.
Evidence from a police witness, Detective Constable Alan Davies, revealed emergency workers recovered 30 tonnes of rubble from the area around the Omagh bomb, filling 13 skips and 17 wheelie bins with debris scattered after the massive explosion.
The courtroom heard a recording of bomb warnings being relayed from a Belfast newsroom to police.
Ulster Television journalist Margaret Hall received warnings 30 minutes and 15 minutes before the explosion from an unidentified caller using a code word and claiming to be from the IRA.
Another incident that Hoey is linked to involved a device left on the railway line at Finaghy train halt in May 1998, which partially exploded.
The court heard how a police dog handler removed evidence from the scene before it was sealed for forensic examination.
Robert Stead took a bank statement from a sports bag found nearby, without the knowledge of the specialist scenes of crime officer, and returned it at a later date.
Defence Barrister Martin O'Rourke told Soco officer Michael Hannigan: "The bag that you seized, MDH8, we know now it had already been searched by police and an item removed from it prior to you being directed towards it.