Omagh bomb could have been averted: Police investigator

The men behind the Omagh bomb could have been arrested before the atrocity, the man who investigated the murders said tonight.

Norman Baxter said had intelligence services shared information with the police, the lives of the 29 killed could have been saved.

Mr Baxter gave evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee of MPs and said there had been a string of earlier threats involving the same republican gang.

“The investigators didn’t have access to the intelligence, not to prevent those incidents, but to ensure that the investigators after those incidents would have had an opportunity to have the suspects arrested prior to the Omagh bomb,” he said.

The former detective superintendent said the Real IRA team came from the North and South.

“These bombers then had free reign from the middle of 1997 and the authorities, whoever they were, allowed that to continue,” he added.