Omagh suspect 'had a hidden room, court told'
Wednesday May 14 2008
AN UNDERGROUND room concealed in a cupboard was discovered in the house of one of five men accused of being responsible for the Omagh bombing, a court heard yesterday.
Gardai told the Omagh civil case in Dublin that £2,000, two disposable body suits and face masks, binoculars and a range of communication devices were also found in Liam Campbell's Co Louth home, car and garage.
This hearing is taking place in Dublin at the request of the overall trial judge in the North, Mr Justice Declan Morgan.
Legal authorities cleared the way for the lawsuit to collect evidence from gardai in a Dublin courtroom. Never before has a British civil action been permitted inside a court in the Republic.
Sued
Campbell and four others are being sued by six families who believe they were responsible for the blast which killed 29 people and injured hundreds .
Michael McKevitt, the alleged leader of the Real IRA, Campbell, said to be his number two, Colm Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly all deny any involvement in the bomb attack in the Co Tyrone town on a busy Saturday afternoon in mid-August 1998.
The District Court heard that when officers searched Campbell's home in Upper Faughart, Dundalk, in March 2000, he ran around the house and it took him 15 minutes to open the door at which point he had to be restrained and arrested.
''During the search we found an underground room and the entrance to this room was through a press (cupboard) in the downstairs bedroom,'' said Det Gda Paul Burke.
Campbell -- the only defendant who has chosen not to be legally represented at the case -- was jailed for eight years in 2004 on two counts of membership of the Real IRA.
The court was also told when gardai searched McKevitt's home in Blackrock, Co Louth, in March 2000 a small bottle of mercury was found.
During the questioning, he denied any knowledge of FBI agent David Rupert, who had infiltrated the RIRA, and maintained he was not aware of anyone with that name.
On day 19 of the case -- which has sat for four weeks in Belfast Crown Court -- members of the Garda Surveillance Unit said they witnessed McKevitt and Rupert together at a Dundalk housing estate a month earlier.
But a barrister for the convicted terrorist questioned the work practices of the officers, who failed to keep any written notes, photographs, log times, or note the clothes worn by suspects during the alleged meeting in Oaklands Park on February 18, 2000.
- Sarah Stack
