Bid to stop retrial rejected

THE High Court has rejected a bid by a man to stop his retrial on a conspiracy charge connected with the Real IRA Omagh bombing in which 29 people died.

Colm Murphy, aged 53, a building contractor and publican who is a native of Co Armagh but with an address at Jordan’s Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth, had claimed the “systemic delay” in prosecuting him has prejudiced his right to a fair and speedy trial.

That delay, it was argued, included an inexcusable three-year delay by the DPP in preferring perjury charges against two gardaí who gave evidence at his first trial which opened in 2001. Such a lapse, it was argued, would amount to a breach of his constitutional rights and under the European Convention of Human Rights.