Bid to halt Omagh plot retrial

A bid by Co Louth man Colm Murphy to stop his retrial on conspiracy charges connected with the Real IRA bombing of Omagh in 1998…

A bid by Co Louth man Colm Murphy to stop his retrial on conspiracy charges connected with the Real IRA bombing of Omagh in 1998, in which 29 people died, will come before the High Court on Tuesday.

The trial was scheduled to open before the non-jury Special Criminal Court last January, but has been deferred pending the outcome of the judicial review challenge.

Mr Murphy (53) claims the "systemic delay" in prosecuting him has prejudiced his right to a fair and speedy trial. That delay, he contends, included an inexcusable three-year delay by the DPP in preferring perjury charges against two gardaí who gave evidence at his first trial, which opened in 2001.

Mr Murphy, a building contractor and publican, 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 and 14-year sentence for conspiracy offences connected with the Real IRA bombing, in which 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, died and more than 300 were injured.

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The appeal court overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial after finding the court of trial had failed to give proper regard to altered Garda interview notes. It found there had been "an invasion of the presumption of innocence" in the judgment on Mr Murphy.

During his 25-day trial in 2001 and 2002, he had pleaded not guilty to conspiring in Dundalk with another person not before the court to cause an explosion in the State or elsewhere between August 13th and 16th, 1998.