An explosives expert yesterday said that he believed there is "support for the proposition" that the same person made a series of bombs, including the car bomb which killed 29 people in Omagh.
Senior forensic scientist Dennis McAuley was giving evidence in the trial of Seán Hoey (37) at Belfast Crown Court. Mr Hoey, an electrician from Molly Road, Jonesborough, in south Armagh, denies 58 terrorist-related charges including the murders of the 29 people killed in the Omagh blast as well as other bomb and mortar attacks.
Giving evidence for the second day, Mr McAuley said that having studied and examined a total of 47 Mark 19 bomb-timers, "I believe there is support for the proposition that the Northern Ireland 1998 units were made by the same person rather than a group of people sharing knowledge".
He told defence QC Orlando Pownall he believed this from a "combination of things" such as the components used to make the timer power unit, the make-up of the major components, the wiring characteristics and the sequence in which they appear in the electrical circuit.
Mr McAuley told the court the main feature he relied upon was the way in which the maker had soldered the wires and connections together as they showed the "individual characteristics of someone's workmanship".
However, he accepted that he was "not an expert on soldering" and further accepted Mr Pownall's suggestion that "nobody is in a position to say that the soldering in each case is exactly the same".
The lawyer suggested to him that in the 12 timer power units, described as the "Omagh series", there was no "signature or striking feature" but Mr McAuley rejected this, saying he thought there was one in the way the wire had been put through the hole, turned back on itself and then soldered.
The trial continues on Tuesday.