It would be a travesty of justice if the man accused of the Omagh bomb atrocity were convicted, his barrister yesterday told the judge who will decide on his guilt or innocence.
In his final submission to Mr Justice Weir in the non-jury trial, Orlando Pownall QC said: "The crown's case has lurched from low point to low point as witnesses accepted they had lied and as one expert called by the prosecution undermined the evidence of another."
He said the defence submitted that at each and every stage of the consideration process, the court will be "wracked by doubt".
Those tasked with representing Seán Hoey, he said, had been gifted with material with which it would be impossible not to create enduring doubt. "The prosecution case cannot survive the taint of the beefing up of evidence by witnesses and exhibits being interfered with," he said.
Seán Hoey (37), an electrician from Molly Road, Jonesborough, south Armagh, denies a total of 56 terrorist charges, including the Omagh attack in which 29 people were killed in 1998 and hundreds more injured.
The prosecution case relied heavily on DNA and fibre evidence said to have been taken from bomb parts that Mr Hoey is alleged to have made.
But Mr Pownall told Mr Justice Weir there had been demonstrable and wide-ranging shortcomings in the integrity of all the important exhibits in the case.
Earlier, Gordon Kerr QC, for the prosecution, urged the judge to take a dim view of Mr Hoey's decision not to give evidence at his trial."The accused during interview suggested that his DNA could have been found on the relevant devices by reason of an innocent contact due to his work as an electrician. We submit that his failure to give evidence to that effect suggests that such an explanation would not bear scrutiny and he is aware of that and it is proper to infer that such as explanation is untrue," Mr Kerr said.
The trial resumes today.