Omagh: Civil action timetable to be set

A multi-million pound civil action against those suspected of carrying out the Real IRA Omagh bomb atrocity will take a step forward today.

A preliminary hearing to set a timetable for the case is being held in the High Court in Belfast.

A total of 29 people were murdered, including the mother of unborn twins, and hundreds more were injured when the dissident Real IRA set off a massive car bomb in the centre of Omagh on August 15 1998.

No one has yet been been convicted for the murders and the families of the dead and injured have launched the civil action against those they believe to be responsible for the bombing.

They hope the case will be heard before the end of the summer.

While the action is being taken privately, Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy announced last August that the British government would provide £800,000 (€1.2m) towards the estimated £1.5m (€2.2m) needed to fight the action.

Seamus Daly, Seamus McKenna, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell and Colm Murphy are being sued for £10m (€15m) by the Omagh Victims Civil Action Group.

Daly, McKevitt, Campbell and Murphy – the only one to be convicted in connection with the Omagh bombing – are serving sentences for Real IRA membership.

Murphy, a Dundalk-based builder and publican, was sentenced to 14 years in January 2002 for plotting the Omagh attack.

Real IRA leader McKevitt was jailed for 20 years last August for directing terrorism, while Campbell was jailed for five years in October 2001.

Solicitors acting for the victims’ group served writs on each of the five suspects in 2002.

Meanwhile it was confirmed this week that the star witness in the Dublin trial of Michael McKevitt is to be a key witness in the civil action.

David Rupert, the US trucking company boss turned MI5 and FBI spy, helped clinch the 20-year sentence given to McKevitt.

Now he is set to give evidence against the five being sued. Mr Rupert was an informer for the Irish special branch, paid to infiltrate the ranks of dissident republicans.

During the McKevitt trial, the three judges said the chief prosecution witness was truthful and his credibility had not been impinged.