The only man to be charged in connection with the Omagh bombing today applied for the case against him to be dismissed after alleged discrepancies were revealed in garda evidence.
Garda forensic expert, Detective Geraldine Butler, told the Special Criminal Court that tests showed that part of the third page of a section of notes made while 49-year-old Mr Colm Murphy was being questioned were written after the interview.
Mr Murphy, from Dundalk, Co Louth, denies conspiracy to cause an explosion on the weekend that the bomb tore through the Co Tyrone market town, killing 29 people and injuring more than 200 others.
Under cross examination by Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, defending, Det Garda Butler said she carried out an exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) test, in which fine powder is poured over pages to detect pen indentations.
She said there were similarities on many pages between the written words and the indentations on other pages.
But she agreed with Mr O'Higgins when he put it to her: "Equally so, there are dissimilarities as well."
He added: "Page three as presented in evidence is re-written?"
"Yes," she answered.
Following the cross examination, Mr O'Higgins made an application to have the case against Mr Murphy dismissed.
He claimed the revelation about the interview, conducted by Detectives Liam Donnelly and John Fahy, brought into question the entire prosecution case.
"There are grave, grave questions to be answered about each and every single aspect of these interrogations," he said. He said the alleged confession made by his client - that he had handed two mobile telephones to a known dissident Republican plotting the atrocity - were "manifestly untrue".
"It has been demonstrated to the court in a clear and categorical act that a very, very serious abuse has taken place," he said.
Commenting on the prospect of a conviction, Mr O'Higgins said: "If you remove the Donnelly and Fahy interviews the court could not, hand on heart, be able to say that having done that we have done the right thing."
Earlier, a bricklayer who once worked for Murphy told the court that he had lent him his mobile phone the day before the blast. It is alleged that Murphy also handed this phone to the bombers to be used in the planting of the device.
The court has already heard that both phones were tracked travelling to Omagh from the Dundalk/Castleblayney border area on the day of the bombing.
Mr Patrick Terence Morgan, from Armagh, spoke quietly and nervously and told the court he was on medication as he gave evidence.
He said Mr Murphy had borrowed his phone on August 14th 1998, saying his own was not working.
Mr Morgan was arrested by the RUC, now the Police Service of Northern Ireland, on February 21st 1999, in connection with the bombing, but was released with a totally clear name after questioning.
PA