The High Court was told yesterday that contempt of court proceedings brought against the BBC by MrColm Murphy, whose conviction on charges arising from the 1998 Omagh bombing was quashed last week, have been resolved.
The proceedings arose from a Panorama programme broadcast by the BBC on October 9th, 2000 and repeated on October 13th, 2000. The programme was broadcast three months before Mr Murphy's trial in the non-jury Special Criminal Court.
Mr Murphy brought contempt of court proceedings against the BBC in the Special Criminal Court which referred the matter to the High Court. Last December, Mr Justice McKechnie ruled that the BBC was not entitled to have a jury determine whether it was in contempt of court and also held that Mr Murphy had the necessary legal standing to bring the proceedings. The matter was adjourned until yesterday to allow the parties to consider the judge's decision. It came before Mr Justice McKechnie again yesterday morning only minutes after Mr Murphy got bail in the Court of Criminal Appeal pending a retrial.
Mr Richard Humphreys BL (instructed by Michael E Hanahoe solicitors) read a statement in which he said the matter with the BBC had been resolved on a number of terms by discussion between the parties.
The statement said that, while the BBC continued to dispute that the programme in question was contempt of court, it acknowledged that Mr Murphy " was fully entitled to maintain his innocence of the charges against him and to test the evidence against him at his trial."