A senior Merseyside police officer has been appointed to head a new investigation into the Omagh bomb atrocity, it emerged today.
Mr Mike Tonge agreed to accept the post during talks with Northern Ireland Policing Board chiefs in Belfast last night.
The Merseyside constabulary deputy chief constable had been identified by the board as the man to lead a fresh investigation into the August 1998 Real IRA bombing that killed 29 people.
But it is believed officials in Liverpool had been reluctant to let another top officer go to Northern Ireland. One of their top detectives, Mr Philip Jones, has already been appointed to scrutinise the Police Service of Northern Ireland's inquiry into the bombing.
But Mr Tonge will not be quitting his job in Liverpool. One policing board source said it would involve him being "leased out" to work in Northern Ireland a few days each month.
A fundraising dinner in Warrington today that will be attended by relatives of the Omagh bomb victims is expected to attract politicians and celebrities.
Mr Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was among the 29 people murdered Omagh, stressed the significance of holding the dinner in another town that had suffered from terrorism.
In March 1993, two children were killed when Provisional IRA bombs exploded in litter bins in a busy shopping precinct of the Lancashire town.
PA