Omagh trial hears two gardaí were cleared of perjury charges

Two garda detectives who interviewed Colm Murphy, who is accused in connection with the Omagh bombing, were cleared of perjury and forgery charges, the Special Criminal Court heard yesterday.

Detective Superintendent John Mc Mahon said that Detective Garda Liam Donnelly and Detective Garda John Fahy were interviewed after the original trial of Colm Murphy heard expert evidence that their notes had been changed.

The Detective Superintendent said that he and Detective Chief Superintendent Cormac Gordon, of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, interviewed both detectives who denied any wrongdoing.

He said that a file was prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions who directed that the two detectives should be charged with perjury and forgery.

Both men were found not guilty of the charges at the Circuit Criminal Court in October 2006, he said. Detective Garda Donnelly has since died, he added.

It was the third day of the retrial of Colm Murphy who has pleaded not guilty to conspiring in Dundalk between August 13 and 16, 1998 with another person to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in the State or elsewhere.

The prosecution is alleging that Murphy lent his mobile phone and another mobile phone to a man who used them while transporting the bomb in a stolen Vauxhall Cavalier car from Dundalk to Omagh. The prosecution is claiming that calls made from Murphy's phone from Omagh were consistent with the timing of the bombing.

Murphy (aged 57), a building contractor and publican who is a native of Co Armagh but with an address at Jordan's Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth, was freed on bail in 2005 after the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed his conviction.

Murphy was jailed for 14 years by the Special Criminal Court in January 2002 for his alleged role in the Omagh bomb, but in January 2005 the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial.

Cross-examined by defence counsel Mr Michael O' Higgins SC, Det Supt Mc Mahon said the two detectives had not been arrested before they were interviewed. He said they were given an opportunity to reply to a number of issues and they did so.

He said that when interviewed Detective Garda Donnelly gave his interviewers a prepared, typed statement in which he denied any wrongdoing in relation to the notes.

Det Supt Mc Mahon denied a suggestion by Mr O' Higgins that the interview with Det Gda Donnelly was "utterly soft".

The trial continues.