Republican charged with Omagh murders

A high-profile republican has been charged with murdering 29 people in the Omagh bombing, police said.

Seamus Daly, 43, from Cullaville, Co Monaghan, has previously been found liable for the August 1998 Real IRA outrage in Co Tyrone in a landmark civil case.

Last night, he was charged with 29 counts of murder, two charges linked to the explosion in Omagh and two counts linked to an attempted explosion in Lisburn in April 1998.

Daly was arrested by officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland in the Newry area on Monday.

The 29 victims died when the dissident republican car bomb detonated in Omagh town centre on a busy Saturday afternoon.

No one has been successfully convicted of the bombing in a criminal court.

Five years ago Daly was one of four men found responsible for the bombing at Belfast High Court after being sued by some of the victims’ families.

The men were ordered to pay £1.6m to the bereaved relatives.

Daly faced a civil retrial after successfully appealing against the original finding, but the second trial delivered the same outcome as the first, with judge Mr Justice John Gillen ruling him responsible for the attack.

He is due to appear in court in Dungannon today.