Two face Omagh bomb retrial
Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt and fellow senior republican Liam Campbell are to seek to go before the Supreme Court in London to challenge rulings that they were liable for the O
Colm Murphy, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell e Seamus Daly Their plan to continue their legal fight was disclosed as senior judges in Belfast confirmed that two other men sued over the atrocity, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly, will both face civil retrials.
Earlier this year both McKevitt and Campbell lost their appeals against being found responsible for the August 1998 atrocity following a landmark civil action taken by relatives of some of the 29 people killed.
Barrister Brian Fee QC said that both men now intended to apply to contest that decision at the Supreme Court.
He declined to set out any potential grounds of challenge until further legal instructions have been received.
During the hearing at the Court of Appeal the plaintiffs were also awarded costs against McKevitt and Campbell.
Both men are legally aided in a case where fees have been estimated at running into several hundred thousand pounds.
No-one has been successfully criminally convicted of the Real IRA bomb attack which devastated the Co Tyrone market town.
But McKevitt, a convicted Real IRA leader serving a 20-year jail sentence; Campbell, a farmer from Co Louth currently fighting extradition to Lithuania over an alleged arms smuggling plot; Murphy, a Dundalk-based builder and publican; and Daly, from Culaville, Co Monaghan, were all found liable for the bombing in a civil ruling delivered in June 2009.
Mr Justice Morgan, now Northern Ireland’s Lord Chief Justice, ordered them to pay £1.6m in compensation.
But in July this year three judges in the Court of Appeal upheld the appeals of Murphy and Daly.
At the time they ordered that Murphy should face a retrial.
Daly will now also be retried, despite his barrister, Mary Higgins QC, claiming that it be unfair and allow the plaintiffs “a second bite at the cherry”.
Reasons for the judges decision will be given at a later stage.
Lawyers for the Omagh families who brought the action are also considering going to the Supreme Court over the level of damages awarded.
The Court of Appeal had rejected their bid to be awarded exemplary damages.
