Officers under investigation after Omagh evidence

Two officers are under investigation by the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland after the judge in the Omagh bombing trial claimed they had told untruths during evidence.

The trial ended today with accused Sean Hoey being cleared of all charges.

Mr Justice Weir said there had been unspeakable carnage and utter devastation in Omagh on the day the bomb exploded following three warnings which failed to give the exact location of the 500lb car bomb which killed the 29 and injured hundreds of others on the afternoon of Saturday August 15, 1998.

The judge added: “I am acutely aware that the stricken people of Omagh and every other right-thinking member of the Northern Ireland community would very much wish to see whoever was responsible for the outrageous offence of August 1998 and other serious crimes in this series of terrorist incidents convicted and punished for their crimes according to law.”

But he also said he had to bear firmly in mind the cardinal principle of the criminal law.

He quoted a judgment by the Court of Appeal, which said justice demanded proper evidence and not merely evidence which might be true to a considerable extent, probably is true, but which was so convincing in truth and manifestly reliable that it reached the standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt.

The judge said: “The evidence against the accused in this case did not reach that immutable standard. Accordingly, I find Mr Hoey not guilty on each of the remaining counts of the indictment.”

The father of a 12-year-old boy killed in the bombing blamed the North's former police chief for the acquittal.

English lawyer Victor Barker, whose son, James, died in the attack, said: “It is the appalling inefficiency of Sir Ronnie Flanagan that has meant Chief Superintendent Baxter has not been able to secure a conviction.”

He said the initial investigation by former police chief Flanagan had been deeply flawed.

Mr Barker added: “He said he would fall on his sword if anything was wrong with this investigation – I will give him the sword.”

Mr Barker, who attended the court with his wife and 13-year-old son, Oliver, said they were “very disappointed” at the judge’s decision which had to be based on the evidence put before him.

But he added: “It is my view and the view of my family that Sean Hoey was one of the conspirators involved in the Omagh bomb – we can’t prove it.”

He said that, as a lawyer, he accepted the legal system was there to protect the human rights of people such as Sean Hoey and he had to stand by it.

“It is only a great shame that my son and the 29 people who died in Omagh has no human rights at all.”

Mr Barker appealed to organisations such as the Real IRA to put the past behind them or there would be “no future for this island”.