Omagh officers demand O’Loan apology
Retired detectives tell former Ombudsman: stop blaming RUC for atrocity
FORMER Police Ombudsman Baroness O’Loan has been urged by two of the lead detectives who investigated the Real IRA atrocity to say sorry for claims that the Omagh bomb could have been prevented.
“Nuala O’Loan owes us an apology for what she said last week. She should stop blaming the police for Omagh,” one of the detectives said.
TWO of the lead detectives criticised over the Omagh bomb investigation have called for a personal apology from former Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan over her claims that the atrocity could have been prevented.
The now retired officers have said they are furious with Baroness O’Loan for reopening old wounds by choosing the 20th anniversary of the single worst terrorist massacre of the Troubles to blame the police for not doing enough to prevent it.
The Real IRA attack on August 15 1998 killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.
Baroness O’Loan’s remarks last week led to a public spat with PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton, who accused her of “traumatising” the victims’ families with her “bizarre” claims.
And the two detectives, speaking publicly for the first time, said they are baffled by the then Ombudsman’s vow to “leave no stone unturned” in her probe, as she didn’t interview either of them prior to the publication of her damning 2001 report. Yet they said the report’s findings clearly pointed to them — so much so that they had to safety-proof their houses following its publication.
The pair, who both retired in 2001, received a written apology in 2009 in response to their complaint about Baroness O’Loan’s criticism of them.
Now, however, they want her to apologise personally for claiming the police could have prevented the attack on the Co Tyrone market town, for which no-one has ever been convicted.
“Nuala O’Loan owes us an apology for what she said last week. She should stop blaming the police for Omagh,” one of the detectives said.
They insisted the so-called anonymous tip-off about a possible dissident attack on Omagh was fully and properly investigated, yet they never got the chance to explain that to Baroness O’Loan prior to the report’s publication.
“Everybody who knew us knew we were the policemen she was referring to,” said Detective A who, like his colleague, has requested anonymity.
“The inference in the report was that we retired before it came out so that they couldn’t touch us, which was nonsense.”
He added: “We were both badly maligned in the report. I had a very deep sense of hurt, Detective B perhaps even more-so because he served in Omagh and knew some of the victims’ families. Those people thought that he was in some way responsible for what happened — a man who served loyally and well for 33 years.
“Imagine having to explain to your children that you were not responsible for the loss
of 31 lives. It was gut-wrenching. It hit very, very deep.” Detective B said he is at a loss to explain why neither him or Detective A were interviewed by the Ombudsman.
“Prior to the publication of the report we had agreed to be interviewed by her,” he said. “Then the Ombudsman’s office phoned up several days before the agreed date and said they no longer wanted to see us.”
He added: “We were told a draft report had gone to the Chief Constable. That report came out without anyone having spoken to us.” Detective A said: “The backlash was terrible, and we made our complaint. Basically it was that the two people who were made central to this report were never spoken to. If she had spoken to us and found out what we had actually done in response to the anonymous information about a potential attack she wouldn’t have come to the conclusion that vilified us in the way that she did.”
The detectives said the telephone warning, which was made 11 days before the bomb exploded in Market Street, was immediately acted upon.
“Detective B was in the office when a CID guy came in and said there’d been anonymous call,” said Detective A.
“The gist of it was there was going to be a gun and rocket attack on the police three miles outside Omagh on August 15. This man was to phone back the next day — but he never did.”
Detective A added: “In the meantime, we kicked into motion a series of enquiries but they all proved negative. We had a nickname that didn’t check out. There was nothing. At the end of the day, it wasn’t a rocket and gun attack outside Omagh.
“I did everything I could to in-
Imagine having to explain to your children that you were not to blame for the loss of 31 lives
vestigate what we were told. The person who made the call needs to answer that. I knew deep down in my heart that I’d done everything I could.”
In response, a spokesman for the Office of Police Ombudsman said their position “is clear”.
“In 2001, we issued a report in which we said that significant information was not handled correctly and that it was not possible to say what impact other action between August 4 and August 15 1998 would have had, or whether action other than that taken by Special Branch could have prevented the Omagh bomb,” he said.
“The current Police Ombudsman, Dr Michael Maguire, in a report in 2014 in which he considered specific matters relating to how the RUC Special Branch handled intelligence, said his investigation had not identified any evidence that intelligence was available to police, which if acted upon, could have prevented the bombing.”