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Omagh bombing: Seamus Daly charged with murdering 29 people Omagh bombing: Seamus Daly charged with murdering 29 people
(about 4 hours later)
A high-profile republican has been charged with murdering 29 people in the Omagh bombing, police have said. A 43-year-old man has been charged with murdering 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bombing – the bloodiest attack in decades of Northern Ireland’s Troubles.
43-year-old Seamus Daly, from Cullaville, Co Monaghan, in the Irish Republic, had previously been found liable for the August 1998 Real IRA outrage in Co Tyrone in a landmark civil case. Seamus Daly, from Cullaville, Co Monaghan in the Irish Republic, was one of four men found liable for the bombing in a civil court case.
On Thursday night, he was charged with 29 counts of murder, two charges linked to the explosion in Omagh and two counts linked to an attempted explosion in Lisburn in April 1998. The Omagh attack, which came shortly after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, was claimed by the breakaway Real IRA group.
Daly was arrested by officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Serious Crime Branch in the Newry area on Monday. Among the victims were 11 children, including two aged just 18 and 20 months, a woman pregnant with twins, and two people visiting from Spain.
The 29 victims, who included a woman pregnant with twins, died when the dissident republican car bomb detonated in Omagh town centre on a busy Saturday afternoon. Confused telephone warnings about the bomb led to a crowd of civilians being evacuated towards the car carrying the bomb.
It was the single bloodiest terrorist attack in the history of the Northern Ireland Troubles and came only months after the signing of the historic Good Friday peace accord. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said: “Detectives from Serious Crime Branch investigating the 1998 Omagh bombing have charged a 43-year-old man with the murders of the 29 people who died in the explosion.”
No-one has been successfully convicted of the bombing in a criminal court. They said he was arrested in Newry on Monday and charged tonight.
Five years ago Daly was one of four men found responsible for the bomb at Belfast High Court after being sued by some of the victims' families. In addition to 29 murders, he was also accused of two other charges “in relation” to the explosion in August 1998 and two charges stemming from an attempted explosion in Lisburn in April of that year. British army explosives experts defused that bomb.
The men were ordered to pay £1.6 million to the bereaved relatives. In the civil court case five years ago, which was brought by families of the victims, Daly and the three others were ordered to pay £1.6m.
Daly faced a civil retrial after successfully appealing against the original finding, but the second trial delivered the same outcome as the first, with judge Mr Justice John Gillen ruling him responsible for the attack. Previously, an electrician from Northern Ireland was charged with making the bomb, but a judge found that the forensic evidence was flawed and police offered misleading testimony.
He is due to appear in court in Dungannon on Friday. Daly will appear at Dungannon Magistrates Court on Friday.
Additional reporting by Press Association