World News - Real IRA chief loses Omagh appeal

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  • xman
    Admin
    • Sep 2006
    • 24007

    World News - Real IRA chief loses Omagh appeal

    7 July 2011 Last updated at 06:21 ET Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt has lost his appeal against a landmark civil court ruling which held him liable for the 1998 Omagh bombing.

    In Belfast on Thursday, the appeal court upheld the 2009 ruling against McKevitt and Liam Campbell.

    The judge directed a civil retrial of the claims against Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly's appeal has been upheld.

    But the court will hear arguments for a retrial. In 2009, a judge found the men liable, awarding £1.6m damages.

    Twenty-nine people and unborn twins died in the Real IRA attack.

    Lawyers for the families had also appealed the compensation awarded. They said it should have been more because of the scale of the outrage.

    In court on Thursday, the 12 relatives who took the 2009 case, were told that the £1.6m figure awarded to them would not be increased.

    No-one has ever been convicted in a criminal court of causing the deaths of the Omagh victims.

    The only man to face criminal charges over the Omagh killings, Sean Hoey from Jonesborough in south Armagh, was acquitted in 2007.

    None of the men being sued has the capacity to pay out any kind of large-scale payment.

    From the start the families made clear the civil action was a vehicle for putting as much information as possible into the public domain about the bombing and the men they claim were involved.

    In his ruling in 2009, Mr Justice Morgan also found the dissident republican organisation the Real IRA liable for the bomb.

    He said it was clear that the bombers' primary objective was to ensure that the bomb exploded without detection, and the safety of those members of the public in Omagh town centre was at best a secondary consideration.

    He said he was "satisfied that those involved in the planning, preparation, planting and detonation of the bomb recognised the likelihood of serious injury or death from its detonation but decided to take that risk".





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