The trial of a man accused of the Omagh bombing that killed 29 people began at Belfast Crown Court today.
Omagh town after the 1998 bombing
Seán Hoey (37), an electrician from Molly Road, Jonesborough, Co Armagh, denies 58 charges relating to the "Real IRA" bombing in August 1998 and other attacks.
He is the only person to be charged with murder in connection with the Omagh bombing and has been in custody for about three years.
Mr Hoey is accused of 29 murders in Omagh on August 15th, 1998, and of possessing explosives, namely a timer power unit, between March 3rd, 1997 and August 16th, 1998.
The six murder conspiracies against members of the security forces are related to attacks allegedly planned for RUC and British army facilities between 1998 and 2001.
Mr Hoey is charged with possessing bomb timer power units and causing mortar bomb explosions at four different RUC stations. He denies all the charges.
In his opening address, Gordon Kerr QC, prosecuting, said the court would be told about the forensic evidence on the devices' construction and about the warnings and claims of responsibility involving a recognised republican dissident terrorist code word for the car bombs.
All but two of the devices linked to the charges against the accused used mark 19 timer power units (TPU), Mr Kerr told the court. This forms a series from which it can be concluded that the units were all built by the same person, the lawyer said.
Fibre evidence will also be used to show a connection between the TPUs at the time of their construction, he added.
Mr Kerr claimed the Omagh telephone warnings were wrong and so lacking in detail that they were meaningless. "The prosecution will say that if the bombers genuinely wish to avoid the certain deaths and injuries which they knew would occur by placing a large car bomb on a busy shopping street they could easily have given a description of the vehicle and an accurate description of its location as had been done before," he said. "In fact they did neither."
The non-jury trial is expected to last around 14 weeks.
The case was adjourned earlier this month because senior counsel Orlando Pownall QC had a viral infection. At the time, the presiding judge, Mr Justice Weir, complained that the defence was tardy in making him aware of Mr Pownall's situation, and that he only learned "informally" of his illness shortly before the trial was to begin.
The court service has arranged a video link from Belfast Crown Court to a college in Omagh so the families can be saved the 140-mile round trip to Belfast.