Murphy handed 14-year sentence for role in Omagh atrocity

The only person to be convicted in connection with the Omagh bombing has been sentenced to 14 years in jail at Dublin’s Special Criminal Court.

Colm Murphy, 49, was found guilty on Tuesday January 22 of conspiracy to cause an explosion and sentenced on Friday January 25.

The Real IRA bomb which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, and injured hundreds on 15 August 1998 was the single worst atrocity of Northern Ireland’s thirty years of conflict.

A building contractor and publican, and a native of County Armagh with an address at Jordan’s Corner, Ravensdale, County Louth, Murphy pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against him. His defence counsel Michael O’Higgins, maintained his innocence claiming him to be a victim of a miscarriage of justice. However, the three judges who spent just 45 minutes considering, delivered a guilty verdict on Tuesday afternoon.

Handing down judgement presiding judge, Mr Justice Robert Barr said they were convicting him on the basis of admissions he made in custody and mobile phone evidence. Mr Murphy lent his phone, and one he borrowed from his foreman, to a man knowing that they would be used for a terrorist purpose - though not specifically for the Omagh attack.

Justice Barr said although Mr Murphy was on the “outer fringes” of the conspiracy, such criminal activity should be treated with the utmost severity. (AMcE)