Omagh bomb pair lose appeal bid
Two men held liable for the Omagh bombing have been denied authorisation to appeal to the Supreme Court in London.
On Friday, senior judges in Belfast refused to grant leave for jailed Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt and fellow dissident republican Liam Campbell.
They also rejected applications by another man now facing a civil retrial over the atrocity, Seamus Daly, and by the victims’ relatives who brought the landmark action.
But lawyers for the defendants and plaintiffs are all now set to petition the Supreme Court directly in a bid to have their arguments heard.
Earlier this year both McKevitt and Campbell lost their challenges against being found responsible for atrocity which killed 29 people, including the mother of unborn twins.
No one has been convicted of the Real IRA bomb attack which devastated the Co Tyrone market town in August 1998.
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; Colm Murphy, a Dundalk-based builder and publican; and Daly, from Culaville, Co Monaghan, were all held 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.
In July, appeals by Murphy and Daly against the verdict were upheld. Both men were ordered to face civil retrials.
Daly’s legal team is seeking to challenge that outcome, claiming it would be unfair for him to have to defend the allegations all over again.
The victims’ relatives who brought the lawsuit also want to go before the Supreme Court in an attempt to win the more punitive exemplary damages.
Alongside that, they are seeking a ruling that Campbell should be sued as an alleged representative of the Real IRA.
A third strand to their case is that convictions outside Northern Ireland, including McKevitt’s in Dublin for directing terrorism, should be admissible in the action.
Applications were submitted to the Court of Appeal in Belfast for certificates to be granted on points of law of general public importance.
But Lord Justice Higgins stated: “We see no reason in this case to depart from the usual practice to refuse leave and leave it to the Supreme Court to consider whether they wish to entertain any of the points set out in applications before this court.”
