Colm Murphy verdict - Judicial errors erode confidence

COLM Murphy was granted bail in the Special Criminal Court yesterday, as a result of the quashing of his 2002 conviction for conspiring to cause the Omagh bombing in which 29 people were killed, including a woman pregnant with twins.

That outrage had the single highest casualty rate of the 30 years of the Troubles.

The Court of Criminal Appeal had found that the three judges at the original trial might not have taken sufficient steps to ensure that they were not prejudiced by tainted evidence that was allegedly falsified by two gardaí, who were also accused of uttering perjured testimony.

In addition, the appeal court was not satisfied that the evidence of other gardaí was subjected to the “extra critical analysis” required by the circumstances.

As Mr Murphy was the only person ever convicted of involvement in the bombing, the frustration of relatives of victims at the overturning of the conviction is understandable. They feel they are back to the start of the investigation, but in a sense they are in a worse position, because now they are even being frustrated in their efforts to explain their frustration.

Lawrence Rush, whose wife was killed in the Omagh blast, attended the appeal court hearing and addressed the Special Criminal Court yesterday.

In an emotional appeal, he opposed the granting of bail to Mr Murphy, but the court had no real option.

Mr Murphy is presumed an innocent man unless and until he is convicted in a court of law.

The judge told journalists present that while they could report that Mr Rush had addressed the court they could not give details of his allegations, because those could prejudice Mr Murphy’s forthcoming trial.

Thus the families of the victims are now virtually gagged.

They could hardly have been reassured by the words of the Taoiseach, who may well have been trying to comfort them when he said, “the Omagh investigation continues on and will continue on”. He then added, “In the end, I don’t think the Omagh investigation is going to end.”

The people of Omagh want conclusions. “People are hurt and upset that this is going on and on forever,” one resident complained.

The new Murphy trial will be delayed until after the trial of the two gardaí, who have been charged with perjury and tampering with some of the evidence introduced at Mr Murphy’s first trial.

He was awarded costs of the first trial yesterday as well as legal aid for the new trial.

Our judicial system has never been so costly, yet the long-suffering public has been confronted with a rash of cases that have been marred by bungling on the part of the authorities, from the fiasco of Judge Brian Curtain’s trial to the overturning of the verdicts against George Redmond and Colm Murphy.

The occasional reversal might be understandable, but people are faced with too many preventable setbacks in high-profile cases.

This level of performance cannot be allowed to continue without seriously undermining public confidence in the judicial process itself.