Real IRA's Day of Reckoning Has Arrived at Last, QC Tells Court LOCAL

Real IRA’s day of reckoning has arrived at last, QC tells court - Local & National, News ... Page 1 of 5

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Home > News > Local & National Real IRA’s day of reckoning has arrived at last, QC In Pictures: St Patrick's Day 2009 tells court

Saturday, 21 March 2009

The day of reckoning has arrived for the Real IRA and five men Print Email blamed for the Omagh bomb atrocity, the High Court in Belfast has heard. Search

As the multi-million pound civil case brought by victims’ relatives

drew to a close following a year-long trial, the defendants were Bookmark & Share Images from Belfast and Downpatrick also branded cowards for refusing to take part in the proceedings. Digg It del.icio.us

Lord Brennan QC, appearing for some of the bereaved, said Facebook Stumbleupon none of those being sued had put up any plausible defence to the allegation that they intended to kill or inflict serious injury. What are these? Rejecting claims that the bombers were targeting commercial Change font size: A A A premises, he said: “It is the kind of back-tracking and self- justification one expects from a terrorist group who suddenly finds themselves the subject of universal contempt and disgust.”

In a claim for damages that has made legal history, the families are seeking to prove that jailed dissident republican leader Michael McKevitt, Seamus McKenna, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly can be held liable for the attack in August 1998 which claimed 29 lives, including the mother of unborn twins.

Lord Brennan’s closing submissions contained a withering assessment of the five men and the renegade grouping they are said to be part of.

He told the court: “After all the evidence we have presented the day of reckoning has come for the Real IRA and for each of these defendants.”

Setting out their various alleged roles, the barrister said McKenna and Daly were in the car which made the bomb run while Campbell was involved in the operational management of the attack.

Murphy supplied the mobile phones used by the team and McKevitt was the man in charge of the Real IRA at the time of a campaign which included the strike on Omagh, it was claimed.

Lord Brennan stressed the defendants’ unexplained failure to give evidence or attend court at any stage in the proceedings.

As some of the victims families listened in the public gallery, Lord Brennan questioned why none of the defendants had turned up in a bid to clear their names.

He claimed: “Faced with the accusation that you were involved in the Omagh bombing, for which you could be civilly liable, it beggars belief that a defendant whose case is that he’s not liable would not take the opportunity to declare that in the witness box in a public court.” He said: “It would be kind to call it gutless, and accurate to call it cowardice.”

He urged Mr Justice Morgan to seek to establish exactly how each of the defendants have met the case against them.

Lord Brennan declared the main case advanced was that the atrocity was intentional.

“It (the bomb) will go off whether or not people are present. Common sense and these facts, are you telling me that they didn’t intend it to cause injury?”

He told the court that the case should be decided in the context of a bombing carried out by a terrorist gang run by the Real IRA.

Defence lawyers are expected to deliver closing submissions next week, before Mr Justice Morgan retires to consider his verdict.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/real-irarsquos-day-of-reckoning-h... 23/03/2009 Real IRA’s day of reckoning has arrived at last, QC tells court - Local & National, News ... Page 2 of 5

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