Road accident victim son of Omagh’s ‘hero’ policeman

A teenager killed in a hit-and-run accident was a son of the police sergeant who took charge amid the carnage of the Omagh bombing.

Richard Marshall, 16, whose body was found on the roadside at Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone, early yesterday was the oldest child of Sgt Philip Marshall and his wife, Wendy.

Sgt Marshall was on the ground at Omagh when a Real IRA car bomb ripped through crowds of shoppers on August 15 1998 and he immediately took control of the emergency response to the disaster.

He was awarded the MBE in the 1999 New Year’s honours for his professionalism and compassion that day as well as the central role he played in removing those injured and killed. He remained at the scene of the blast for five hours afterwards, leaving only with the last of the dead.

He is said to have been profoundly affected by the horror of the day, which claimed the lives of 29 people, among them a woman heavily pregnant with twins. It was the worst single atrocity in 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.

Richard lived with his family in Omagh but was having a Saturday night out in Fivemiletown, 20 miles from Omagh - having completed his mock GCSEs recently - when the accident happened.

He left the Valley Hotel in the town shortly before midnight and his body was found at 12.30am today. Police investigating the incident confirmed they were treating it as a hit-and-run.

Oliver Gibson, a Democratic Unionist member of the Northern Ireland Assembly - who himself lost a niece, Esther Gibson, in the Omagh bombing - said those living in the town were devastated for the Marshall family.

‘‘Sgt Marshall would be held in very high esteem by the people of Omagh, irrespective of faith or creed,’’ he said.

‘‘He was the one person who was so singularly identified with all the work and co-ordination on the ground at the Omagh bombing.

‘‘His peers also have great respect for him. He is one of those people who would have shone through the tragedy.

‘‘The whole of Omagh will be united in extending their very sincere sympathy over what must be a gut-wrenching tragedy for his family.’’