A couple whose son died in the Omagh bombing have had their request for compensation, including money they spent on his school fees, refused by Omagh County Court.
Victor and Donna-Marie Barker, from Buncrana, Co Donegal, had sought to recover up to £28,000 they had spent before the explosion last year which killed their son James.
Mrs Barker said she was disappointed but not surprised that Judge Jeffrey Foote denied their application. She said that in drawing the issue to the attention of the court, she and her husband were not seeking to place a monetary value on their son's life or to argue that the life of any one person was more valuable than another.
"We were simply asking to be paid back expenses which we had incurred, and in respect of which we have relieved the state of a burden, and which have now been thrown away because of our son's murder."
Mrs Barker appealed for anyone with information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of the bombers to contact the RUC or Garda. "They should be in prison now so that they are not free to commit any further barbaric deeds," she said.
Refusing the application, Judge Foote said he had come to the view that Mr Barker's interpretation of Article 3 of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Order 1988 was "ingenious but flawed".
"The words are clear and school fees already paid are not recoverable under the present legislation. Nor do I consider it `reasonable and proper' that they should be paid. To decide so might involve the courts in the unedifying situation of saying that the life of a child who had attended a state school was worth less than a child that had been privately educated.
"Accordingly I dismiss Mr Barker's application, while at the same time complimenting him on the dignity of his submissions, and offering him and his family condolences on their tragic loss."