The Omagh bombing was today described as “a massacre of the innocents” at the first day of a civil action against five men who the victims’ relatives believe were connected to the attack.
File photo: Police officers and firefighters inspect the damage caused by the bomb explosion in Omagh
Twenty nine people died, including a mother pregnant with twins, and hundreds more were injured when the Real IRA bombed the Co Tyrone town on a busy Saturday afternoon in August 1998.
Some of those who lost loved ones and some of those who were injured launched the civil action following the failure of the authorities to bring anyone to justice in nearly a decade.
Lord Daniel Brennan, QC, representing them, said the bombing was "one of the most infamous terrorist atrocities in the history of this island".
Opening the landmark action at the High Court in Belfast he said: "It is a civil claim unprecedented - certainly in the UK - and probably around the world.
"For the first time the victims of terrorism are confronting the alleged perpetrators.
"For the first time private citizens are confronting terrorists in our courts."
The five men accused of carrying out the bombing were not in court. Two are in prison in the Irish Republic and the others chose not to attend.
All have denied involvement and four are represented at the hearing which is expected to last for up to eight weeks — with around a week of the hearing in the Supreme Court in Dublin while some two dozen Irish police officers give evidence.
The action, taken by the families affected by the bomb and in the name of Mark Breslin whose wife died in the blast, has been funded by by public donations of some £1.2 million topped up with £800,000 from the British government.
Writs were served on Séamus McKenna, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Séamus Daly and Colm Murphy in August 2001, but progress in the case was hampered by the ongoing police investigation and criminal proceedings. All five are from the Republic and at the time of the bombing lived in or around Dundalk.
The only man to be charged with the Omagh murders is not among those targeted by the families. Last December Sean Hoey, a South Armagh electrician, walked free from Belfast Crown Court after a judge acquitted him of all charges related to the bombing and a host of other Real IRA attacks.
The courtroom where the case is being heard by Mr Justice Morgan has been especially fitted with state-of-the-art video and computer equipment for the case.
Several of the Omagh families sat on the public benches listening intently as Lord Brennan delivered his day long opening address.
Lord Brennan said the families were seeking aggravated, punitive and exemplary damages against the five men.
If successful, any award would be relentlessly enforced and money would be sought from the men, the Real IRA, the 32-County Sovereignty Movement - its alleged political wing - and the Irish Prisoners Welfare organisation.
Success would send out the message that "every terrorist will have to live in fear that their assets, their homes, their belongings may be taken from them."
The barrister said some of the Omagh families had not joined in the action and some had joined and then left.
The six who finally brought the case had "never faltered in their resolve or determination to pursue this to the end," he said.
The case, he said, would expose the internal workings of the Real IRA and its lies.
It would include telephone evidence, that from an FBI agent who infiltrated the Real IRA, evidence about a British secret service sting operation and detailed evidence from police on both sides of the Irish border.
A mainstay of the case would focus on detailed records of phone calls made leading up to and in the wake of the attack.
"Evidence of this volume, detail and complexity has not previously been presented in these courts," he said, noting that such information was not employed in the Crown case against Hoey.
Leading the court through call records and information from mobile phone masts on both sides of the border, Lord Brennan attempted to track Daly and McKenna's journey from Dundalk to Omagh on the day of the attack.
He claimed the former was in a scouting car and the latter in the Vauxhall containing the bomb.
Murphy had supplied both of them with phones, he claimed.
Lord Brennan said the evidence also identified Campbell as the operational director of the bombing mission.
"Evidence which at first looks complex such as this ends up giving a simple, plain picture," he said.
"Which I can sum up in these words: it all fits together."
Central to the case will be evidence from FBI agent David Rupert — but he will not be appearing in person or by video after being taken into protective custody by the FBI because of the threat against his life, said the peer.
Nevertheless Rupert had mounted an intelligence operation which he described as "quite extraordinary in its length, its depth and its success."
He said Rupert had "infiltrated the Real IRA to its very centre and actually finished up as an attendee at the army council of the Real IRA".
A distinctive man in his 50s, well over 6ft tall and weighing in at 18 stone, Rupert was a paid agent who received considerable sums of money, said Lord Brennan adding "no doubt because he was carrying out life-threatening work".
Throughout his operations he had sent his handlers emails which over three years amounted to 2,000 pages - over 1,000 between August 1999 and 2000 - having acquired "intimate knowledge" of the Real IRA, Continuity IRA and Republican Sinn Fein.
"He is under the protection of the FBI and no longer available to give either live or video evidence," said Lord Brennan, insisting his documentary evidence would be used instead.
Michael O'Higgins, SC, the Dublin based barrister representing McKevitt, said he would be arguing in due course that the material should not be admissible.
He appealed to the judge to stop Lord Brennan using the material to outline the case until the issue was resolved, but failed to succeed.
The case was adjourned until tomorrow.
Speaking outside the court Michael Gallagher expressed his satisfaction that the case was now being heard.
"I think it's a relief for the families that we've finally come through the
court doors," he said.
"It's evident from proceedings today that everything is going to challenged but we expected that from their counsel.
"We've waited seven years for this day and today was absolutely riveting. I imagine for families to be here every day will be hard but we are committed to being here as much as possible.
"Like all the previous cases we're putting our trust in the court system and will respect the outcome whatever that may be and we have every faith in our legal team."
PA