At last, new hope of justice for families of the Omagh bombing
Ruling clears way for them to seize assets in South
FAMILIES of the Omagh bombing victims have secured a court ruling that could finally force the gang found responsible for the atrocity to pay damages, the Irish Daily Mail can reveal.
An emergency High Court enforcement order will allow lawyers for a group of relatives of the 29 dead pursue two terrorists, a builder and a bricklayer, for €2.2million anywhere within the Republic.
The Dublin ruling marks a significant step forward in the victims’ families tortuous but unrelenting 17-year campaign for justice.
In August 1998, 13 weeks after the historic Good Friday Agreement was signed, a Real IRA bomb explosion in the market town of Omagh, Co. Tyrone, killi ng 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.
Two years later, it emerged that a dozen relatives of the victims in- tended to serve writs for damages on the gang they held responsible.
A public appeal raised the €2.7million needed to bring their unprecedented case to court in the North.
In 2009, the families won their landmark civil action against Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt, his director of operations Liam Campbell, builder Colm Murphy and bricklayer Séamus Daly.
But it is understood that in the past six years, the families have not received a cent on foot of the resulting multi-million euro judgment.
The relatives can now execute the €2.2million cash judgment in the Republic by seeking to seize assets or sequester any earnings of any or all of the four men.
It is believed the court order was sought on the basis that at least half of the gang are now thought to be based in the Republic and may own or control assets here which could be targeted.
At l east two, Campbell and Murphy, are believed have cash or assets potentially worth pursuing within the Republic.
Armagh native Murphy, 63, began investing in property in the late Eighties and made his money from his building company and a bar in Dundalk.
Campbell, 52, became wealthy through cross-border smuggling of drink and tobacco.
The families are said to welcome the Dublin ruling with ‘quiet and cautious optimism’.
A well-placed source told the Mail last night: ‘This is progress and it has brought them new hope. It seems that the net is finally closing in on these guys.
‘But there is still a fairly long road ahead and they are waiting to see how this pans out.’
Gary Daly, a Dublin-based solicitor for the dozen relatives who took on the terrorists and won, said his clients did not wish to comment at this stage. Michael Gallagher, who was awarded £105,000 over the death of his 21-year-old son Aiden at Belfast’s High Court in June 2009 but never received the payout, said: ‘We will chase these people every way that we can.’
He added that it would be a hollow victory for the families if the quartet were not pursued. Despite multiple attempts to secure a conviction in the criminal courts, nobody stands convicted of the blast.
Although Murphy was convicted in 2002 of conspiracy to cause an explosion, his conviction was overturned in 2005 and he was cleared of any involvement at a 2010 retrial at Dublin’s Special Criminal Court.
Ever since, the families have pinned their hopes on forcing those responsible to pay compensation. Their lawyers have made painstaking efforts to recover the millions from the four men, on foot of the Belfast ruling, and it is understood that all ‘enforcement’ avenues have now been exhausted.
Mr Gallagher said in 2009: ‘We have sent out a message to terrorists that, from now on, you don’t only have to worry about the authorities, the families of your victims will come after you. It’s also a message to governments that if you don’t do it, then we will. We have also sent a message to victims around the world. You have a way of challenging those who murder your loved ones.’
However, not only have the four men failed to pay up for the past six years, two of them – McKevitt and his associate Campbell – have gone to the European Court of Human Rights in a bid to avoid paying damages. Launched a year ago, that case remains unresolved.
But it is understood the ongoing European case cannot interfere with the right of the families’ representatives to seek assets on foot of the Dublin decision by High Court Master Edmund Honohan.
Barrister Andrew Robinson, acting for the 12 relatives, brought the case before Mr Honohan in the Four Courts on an urgent basis just over a week ago. Mr Robinson did not explain the reason for the rush to court.
‘The families will come after you’