Cleared Suspect Bomber To Sue Omagh Victim's Father

[Night Rider]

Hoey To Sue Omagh (N. Ireland) Victim's Father
Updated:13:43, Friday December 21, 2007

The man cleared of murdering 29 people in the Omagh tragedy is to sue the father of a young boy killed in the bombing.

Sean Hoey was cleared of murder Lawyers for Sean Hoey, 38, are also considering taking legal action against the Public Prosecution Service for taking the case against him.

Mr Hoey, an electrician from Jonesborough, was cleared of 56 charges relating to Omagh and other dissident republican bomb attacks in Belfast Crown Court yesterday.

He was angered by comments made by Victor Barker, whose 12-year-old son James died in the 1998 bomb.

What a joke. It was as clear as the OJ Simpson case and he got away with it. UK legal system is a joke. Typical of the fucker to want to sue as soon as he's let off the hook...

[Oli]

It was a tragedy that those people were killed, but when the police are not truthful, innocent people go to jail. The PSNI did a poor job of evidence collection, lost evidence, contaminated other pieces, and lied.
As I understand the victims families have a lawsuit filed against some of the perpetrators.
Much like the OJ case, the police fucked up what should have been an open and closed case.


How the Omagh case unravelled

BBC News

You can write the history of Northern Ireland's troubles as a litany of the names of small market towns on which terrorist violence conferred a kind of grim immortality.

You may remember some of them - Claudy and Ballykelly, Kingsmills and Enniskillen.

For outsiders of course they fade from the memory as they fade from the headlines.

Only in the hundreds of homes that knew the numb despair of bereavement do they continue to resonate down the years.

Something made Omagh different.

It is almost ten years since the explosion that tore through the shoppers and tourists crowded into the neat little town centre, killing 29 people and injuring hundreds more.

And somehow the case has continued to command our attention, even as Northern Ireland has made the painful transition from conflict in its aftermath.

Dogged family

First of course, there was the sheer scale of the horror. Omagh saw the biggest loss of life in a single bomb blast in 30 years of atrocities in Ireland and on the British mainland.

Then, there have been the court cases - one prosecution now on either side of the Irish border, and a civil action planned by the families of the victims against some of the men they accuse of murdering and maiming the people they loved, and continue to love.

And the sheer doggedness of the victims families in keeping the issue of the Omagh attack and the subsequent police investigation in the news shouldn't be underestimated.

They have become a formidable presence in the life of Northern Ireland, impossible for politicians and senior police officers to ignore. They have acquired skills at lobbying and campaigning that you suspect many of them never wanted, and never knew they had.

But more than anything, for the rest of us, it was the timing of the attack on Omagh which burned it into our memories.

It came just four months after Northern Ireland's fractious political parties made a political deal which included Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA.

It tore apart a community in a province which was beginning to learn to hope after decades of despair - and it made people fear that the new dawn which had promised so much, would be quickly and cruelly extinguished.

Like the other bombings in the early part of 1998 in places like Lisburn and Banbridge, Omagh was a conscious attempt by republicans who disagreed with the political strategy of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, to destabilise Northern Ireland in that vulnerable moment of hope.

It failed - but there is a terrible irony to the way in which the campaign was halted only by the wave of revulsion triggered by the carnage at Omagh.

So there was intense interest in the prosecution of Sean Gerard Hoey, the only man to face charges of murder in relation to the worst single terrorist atrocity of what we euphemistically call "the troubles".

So crowded were the public benches that when I glanced up from my seat at one of the press tables I noticed that Sean Hoey's brother was squeezed in beside the husband of one of the women he was accused of murdering.

The legal process was extraordinarily protracted - nine years passed in all from the moment when Sean Hoey's home was first searched to the moment of acquittal.

The case was heard in a "Diplock" court, that it is to say by a judge, Mr Justice Weir, sitting alone without a jury. The system was introduced in 1972 to counter the possibility that paramilitary organisations would cripple the criminal justice system by intimidating jurors in cases involving their members.

It was once a commonplace sight, but its become much rarer as the age of political violence recedes into history.

Mr Justice Weir spent more than an hour examining the case against Sean Hoey, as the families of both victims and accused listened intently.

He explained that the evidence was mainly scientific - that is to say it was based on conclusions drawn after subjecting fragments of material gathered at the scenes of bomb attacks to forensic analysis.

As we listened, it became clear slowly that the judge was not satisfied with the case. There was strongly worded criticism of how the police had collected, labelled and handled evidence.

'Beefed up' statements

There was elegantly expressed scepticism at the extent to which scientists have validated a technique called Low Copy Number DNA - essentially the belief that workable evidence can be gathered from microscopic particles of material.

Above all there was thinly veiled judicial anger that two police witnesses had "beefed up" their statements - had lied, in plain English.

Mr Justice Weir's words on the subject of LCN DNA were strong enough to suggest that questions will now be asked in other cases working their way through the criminal justice system which rely on the technique.

For the Hoey family of course this was not simply a failure to convict, it was a verdict which acquits a man who in their view, and now in the eyes of the law, was simply not guilty in the first place.

The Omagh families were dignified in defeat, as they have been dignified at every stage of their fight for justice. Their campaigning will go on, but the prospect is surely receding now that anyone will ever be convicted of murdering their husbands and brothers and sisters and wives and children.

As this case fades from our memories it's worth remembering the victims of all Northern Ireland's atrocities for whom the pain is not fading even as the province heads into a more hopeful future.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7154952.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7149505.stm

[Night Rider]

Much like the OJ case, the police fucked up what should have been an open and closed case.

Exactly, the police made an absolute mess of the case. Northern Ireland is known to have one of the best police forces in Europe but I could have done a better job myself in this case. Fucking joke and as usual it's the victim that suffers.

[arnie666]

Bliar had a golden opportunity after the Omagh bombings due to widespread worldwide public revulsion to send in the hooligans and blame the bloodbath on a rira and pira civil war. He didn't because he is a gutless coward. This means that 29 innoncents will never be avenged.

McGuinness could indeed instantly provide the answers to the relevant questions - all of them. Unfortunately, doing so would end the gravy train (or in PSFspeak: "jeopardise the Peace Process").

However, he's never been known to tell much of the truth, so he hardly counts as a reliable witness. Apparently that qualifies him for high Government Office.

[Night Rider]

McGuinness could indeed instantly provide the answers to the relevant questions - all of them. Unfortunately, doing so would end the gravy train (or in PSFspeak: "jeopardise the Peace Process").

However, he's never been known to tell much of the truth, so he hardly counts as a reliable witness. Apparently that qualifies him for high Government Office.

Yeah apparantely the more people you murder, the higher you are in Government Office.

Gerry Adams (President of Sinn Féin)

Martin McGuiness (Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland)

And the UK has the cheek to talk about problems elsewhere in the world!?!

[Coroner]

You can´t blame it all on the Republicans, NR. :)

The history of NI is a joke that was not so funny for the Irish. The Loyalists had the power for decades (if not centuries) and the RUC was in their hands with the British army and secret servise on their side. How many murders on Catholics haven never been solved? The Omagh bombing doesn´t justify the Irish victim portrait but I´m responding this way because your tendentional view on Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, declaring them as murderers. They were members of the IRA, yes, but what about the ex-members of the UVF or LVF?

[Night Rider]

You can´t blame it all on the Republicans, NR. :)

The history of NI is a joke that was not so funny for the Irish. The Loyalists had the power for decades (if not centuries) and the RUC was in their hands with the British army and secret servise on their side. How many murders on Catholics haven never been solved? The Omagh bombing doesn´t justify the Irish victim portrait but I´m responding this way because your tendentional view on Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, declaring them as murderers. They were members of the IRA, yes, but what about the ex-members of the UVF or LVF?

That's besides the point. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness are two high profile people in N. Ireland. To be honest I don't know any names of Loyalists in Government but I know for a fact that there are. A terrorist is a terrorist at the end of the day, no matter what religion. If you're comparing the deaths caused by the IRA to the deaths caused by all of the Loyalist paramilitaries then the IRA wins hands down. The IRA are prepared to kill their own people which also seperates them from Loyalist groups.

The leading Loyalist politician Ian Paisley has never been involved in any crimes whereas Gerry and Martin are murdering scum that are now running the country.

[Coroner]

You can´t blame it all on the Republicans, NR. :)

The history of NI is a joke that was not so funny for the Irish. The Loyalists had the power for decades (if not centuries) and the RUC was in their hands with the British army and secret servise on their side. How many murders on Catholics haven never been solved? The Omagh bombing doesn´t justify the Irish victim portrait but I´m responding this way because your tendentional view on Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, declaring them as murderers. They were members of the IRA, yes, but what about the ex-members of the UVF or LVF?

That's besides the point. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness are two high profile people in N. Ireland. To be honest I don't know any names of Loyalists in Government but I know for a fact that there are. A terrorist is a terrorist at the end of the day, no matter what religion. If you're comparing the deaths caused by the IRA to the deaths caused by all of the Loyalist paramilitaries then the IRA wins hands down. The IRA are prepared to kill their own people which also seperates them from Loyalist groups.

The leading Loyalist politician Ian Paisley has never been involved in any crimes whereas Gerry and Martin are murdering scum that are now running the country.

Paisley has no blood on his hands because he had no reason to fight. I don´t know if you´re Protestant or Catholic (I guess Prot.?) and I don´t want to offend you but the IRA and the Loyalist paramilitaries stood in very different positions. NI was in pro-British hands and there was no reason for Paisley or any other high profile Loyalist politican to be active in some of the paramilitaries. The Irish working class in NI was totally screwed in the last 200 years. They are angry and everything that was left for them to do is to join the IRA. I do not justify them because killing innocent people is terrorism and this made the IRA a terrorist movement but you have to analyze the whole situation and history. The Ulster-Scots arrive with plantation, take their land away and are the new rulers. The others get pissed and eveything else is well-known history.

Btw, sorry for this late answer. I actually totally forgot about this topic since I never get informed about replies per mail.