Policing Board seeks talks with Orde after Omagh trial

The North's Policing Board is seeking a meeting with the PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde to discuss the outcome of the trial.

The PSNI was severely criticised yesterday by the judge that acquitted Sean Hoey of all charges relating to the 1998 atrocity.

The 38-year-old electrician from Armagh walked free from court after he was found not guilty of the murder of 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

Families of victims of the Omagh bomb are calling for a full cross-border inquiry following the judgement.

Stanley McCombe, whose wife was killed in the bombing, is accusing the police of taking a case that was doomed to failure.

"I think in my own mind that they ran this case as an appeasement for the people of Omagh," he said.

"Today has been a joke, a very expensive joke. At the very beginning we were visited by all classes of police officers saying we know these people and we'll get these people.

"Nine and a half years, and they haven't done anything yet."