Ahern welcomes Omagh bomb ruling

JUSTICE Minister Dermot Ahern has welcomed the landmark ruling and a £1.6 million (€1.84m) compensation award in the Omagh bombing civil action against former Real IRA leader Michael Mc-Kevitt and three other men.

McKevitt, along with Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly, were found to be responsible for the bombing by the Belfast court in the civil case brought by victims’ families.

Seizure orders, with state approval, on property may be made to ensure the compensation is paid.

Mr Justice Morgan, who is tipped to become the next Lord Chief Justice in the North, took three months to reach a judgment in the case.

The four men did not attend the hearings.

“I am very pleased for the families. This has been a long process and no doubt a difficult process for them. I hope it represents a step towards a degree of closure for them,” said Mr Ahern.

Authorities here had been happy to assist the Belfast court, including the unprecedented move of allowing evidence to be heard south of the border, he said.

He added it was important to “be careful in our comments on the case” as “there are still criminal proceedings ongoing in connection with this matter”.

Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden died in the bombing along with 28 others and who shouldered the burden of leading the families’ campaign, said: “We have sent out an important message to terrorists and their victims around the world – you now have a way of challenging those who’ve murdered your loved ones.

“I think it is a tremendous moral victory for the families.”

In a message to the four dissident republicans, he said: “You didn’t figure on people like us standing up and using all the resources of the law.”

He said the families had acted within the law, whereas the Real IRA had not.

McKevitt, a founding member of the Real IRA, is in prison in the Republic. Co Louth farmer Campbell is in custody in the North facing extradition proceedings to Lithuania to face arms smuggling charges.

Murphy, also from Louth, was found guilty in Dublin’s Special Criminal Court of conspiring to cause the Omagh bomb but his conviction was later quashed. A fifth man accused by the relatives, Seamus McKenna, was cleared yesterday.