Murphy lawyer applies for acquittal on Omagh conspiracy charge

A lawyer for Colm Murphy who is accused of conspiracy in relation to the 1998 Omagh bomb which killed 29 people and injured more than 300 today applied for a direction that his client should be acquitted.

Murphy's counsel Mr Michael O'Higgins SC submitted to the Special Criminal Court in Dublin that his client should be acquitted because of the lack of evidence against him.

The application came on the nineteenth day of Murphy's trial after the State case in the trial concluded.

Murphy, a 57-year-old native of Co Armagh, with an address at Jordan's Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with another person to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in the State or elsewhere between August 13 and 16, 1998.

The prosecution is claiming that Murphy lent two mobile phones to a man who was involved in transporting the car bomb from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan to Omagh, where it exploded on August 15, 1998 killing 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, and injuring more than 300.

The Real IRA later claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, the worst terrorist atrocity in the history of the Troubles.

Murphy was originally convicted of the charge in 2002 but the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial in 2005.

Today, Mr O'Higgins submitted that alleged admissions made by Murphy while in garda custody in February 1999 were not admissible in evidence and that without these alleged admissions there was no evidence against him.

He also submitted that evidence relating to the Omagh bombing was not admissible because Murphy is facing a conspiracy charge and is not charged with the actual bomb attack.

Mr O'Higgins told the court that the defence in the trial is "seriously impaired" because of the absence in the case of Detective Garda Liam Donnelly who has died. The court has heard that scientific procedures had established that interview notes taken by the late Detective Garda Donnelly and Detective Garda John Fahy with Murphy were rewritten. Both detectives were later charged with perjury and forgery but were acquitted.

Prosecution counsel Mr Tom O'Connell SC submitted that the explosion which Murphy conspired to cause was the bomb that exploded in Omagh. He said it was the prosecution case that Murphy lent two mobile phones to a man, knowing that they were going to be used in " a bombing run" to Northern Ireland.

He said that evidence of mobile phone traffic showed that Murphy's phone was used in "the scout car" and the other phone was used in "the bomb car".

Legal submissions in the trial continue on Tuesday.