British ‘safe haven’ for informer
Police in the North have made three requests to speak to Paddy Dixon, a car thief who passed on information on dissident republican activity in the run-up to the August 1998 atrocity.
But, according to senior officers across the Border, they have been denied access on security grounds.
It has emerged that agencies in Britain have been aware that Mr Dixon has been living under an assumed name and it’s thought he has been receiving regular cash payments from the gardaí.
Relatives of those who died in the bombing and opposition politicians in Britain demand answers.
Mr Dixon, who is said to have supplied cars to the Real IRA and also informed on the organisation, may have information to back up a claim by a suspended member that gardaí had information that, if acted on, could have prevented the bombing.
A three-member panel, including a former DPP and an ex-senior civil servant, investigated the claim. The Nally Report has not been published but, according to Justice Minister Michael McDowell, it found no evidence to support the allegation.
Michael Gallagher, the father of one of the Omagh bomb victims, accused the British Government of misleading the families over the whereabouts of Mr Dixon.
Mr Gallagher said it was a scandal that the informant now appeared to be living in Britain.
The families of the 29 victims had repeatedly urged the British authorities to put pressure on the Government to allow Dixon to be interviewed by the Omagh investigation team.
For three years, the head of the Omagh bomb investigation, Superintendent Norman Baxter, has been trying to get access to Dixon.
Supt Baxter wants to probe a claim by suspended garda John White that he passed a warning from Dixon about a planned spectacular attack to a senior garda two weeks before the attack. The information was never passed to the RUC.
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