OMAGH BOMB TRIAL OF SEAMUS DALY COLLAPSES AFTER PPS DROPS CHARGES

Omagh bomb suspect Seamus Daly has charges of murdering 29 people dropped by PPS

Omagh bomb suspect Seamus Daly has charges of murdering 29 people dropped by PPS

THE criminal case against a man accused of murdering 29 people in the 1998 Real IRA Omagh bomb atrocity has drmatically collapsed.

Seamus Daly, 45, from Jonesborough, was arrested in 2014 by the PSNI.

The bricklayer, originally from Culloville, County Monaghan, also faced charges of causing the explosion.

The Omagh bomb was the biggest single atrocity in the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland – four months after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

The death toll included nine children and three generations of one family, but no-one has been convicted in a criminal court of carrying out the attack.

Along with the murder charges, Mr Daly faced charges of causing the explosion and possessing the bomb, and two charges relating to another dissident republican bomb plot in Lisburn, Co Antrim, in April 1998.

After his arrest, Mr Daly gave police a statement denying any involvement in the Omagh bombing or Lisburn plot.

His lawyers argued that the case against him is weak and much of the evidence had been discredited.

During preliminary hearings, a key witness gave inconsistent evidence and contradicted his previous testimony.

The Public Prosecution Service has now decided there is no reasonable prospect of conviction and they have dramatically withdrawn the case at this late stage in the proceedings.

Daly had been attending a preliminary inquiry into his case at Omagh Magistrates’ Court.

Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was killed in the Omagh bombing, said he was unhappy that information was circulating on Tuesday morning about the collapse of the case, yet claimed he and other families had not been told by the authorities.

“We have been failed once again by the police service, by the prosecution service, by the government and by the criminal justice system,” he said.

A previous trial of Sean Hoey drew criticism of the police by a senior judge who acquitted him of all the charges.

Nearly 18 years on, nobody has yet to be convicted of causing the Omagh bomb massacre.

The scene after the August 1998 Omagh bomb atrocity

The scene after the August 1998 Omagh bomb atrocity

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