Omagh: Secret room found

AN UNDERGROUND room concealed in a cupboard was discovered in the house of one of five men accused of being responsible for the most lethal bomb of the conflict in the north, a court heard yesterday.

Gardaí told the Omagh civil case in Dublin that £2,000 (€2,500), two disposable body suits and face masks, binoculars and a range of communication devices, were also found in Liam Campbell’s Co Louth home, car and garage.

Campbell and four others are being sued by six families, who believe they were responsible for the Omagh blast that killed 29 people and injured hundreds more.

Campbell, Michael McKevitt, Colm Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly, all deny any involvement in the atrocity.

Campbell was jailed for eight years in 2004 on two counts of membership of the Real IRA.

During yesterday’s questioning, McKevitt denied any knowledge of FBI agent David Rupert, who had infiltrated the group, but members of the Garda Surveillance Unit said they witnessed McKevitt and Rupert together at a Dundalk housing estate.

A barrister for McKevitt questioned the work practices of the officers, who failed to keep any written notes, photographs, log times, or note the clothes worn by suspects during the alleged meeting in Oaklands Park on February 18, 2000.

The accuracy of the testimonies given by Det Garda Fergal O’Brien and Sgt Seamus Lynch were questioned by Kieran Vaughan QC.

They denied Mr Vaughan’s allegation that they put their heads together with a senior officer to make statements after McKevitt’s arrest for terrorist offences in January 2001.

Mr Vaughan also accused a senior garda, Det Sgt Noel McGuigan, who claimed to have seen McKevitt and Rupert together on another occasion, of lying or making a mistake.