Relatives of the Omagh bomb victims today won a landmark civil action against four men they blamed for the attack in which 29 people died.
Former Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt and three other men — Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly — were found to be responsible for the bombing by a judge in a landmark civil case brought by victims’ families at Belfast High Court.
The Real IRA was also found liable for the attack in today’s ruling.
The relatives launched the action at the High Court in Belfast after the failure of the police to secure a criminal conviction over the 1998 Real IRA bombing in the Co Tyrone town.
They sued five men and the Real IRA as an organisation in a case which made legal history when it sat to hear evidence in both Belfast and Dublin. The case opened in April last year and completed hearing evidence in March.
Mr Justice Morgan — set to be Northern Ireland’s next Lord Chief Justice — took three months to sift through the evidence and produce his judgment that the case was proved against the four men, none of whom attended the hearings.
McKevitt is a founding member of the Real IRA who is in prison in the Republic. Co Louth farmer Campbell is in custody in Northern Ireland facing an attempt to extradite him to Lithuania to face arms smuggling charges.
Murphy, also from Louth, was found guilty in Dublin’s Special Criminal Court of conspiring to cause the Omagh bomb but his conviction was later quashed. A fifth man accused by the relatives, Seamus McKenna, was cleared today.
The only man to face criminal charges over the Omagh killings, Sean Hoey (38) from Jonesborough, South Armagh, was acquitted in December 2007.
Judge Mr Justice Morgan awarded more than £1.6 million in damages to the 12 named relatives who took the action.
The judge said it was clear that McKevitt was a senior figure in the dissident republican group at the time of the bombing and was heavily involved in the procurement of explosives.
He based much of this on evidence obtained by an undercover FBI agent, who infiltrated the organisation in the years after the attack.
"He held and has always held a significant leadership role in the Real IRA," the judge said of McKevitt.
Mr Morgan also based his findings in regard to Murphy on information obtained by the American agent, David Rupert.
The judge said he was satisfied that Campbell was a member of the Army Council of the Real IRA at the time of the bombing.
"I consider that the case against him is overwhelming," the judge said.
Outside the courthouse, the relatives thanked all those who helped them in their long quest for justice.
Stanley McCombe, whose wife died in the bombing, said he was absolutely delighted at the judgment.
"It is a result we hoped for but didn't expect. We didn't build our hopes up because we've been let down so many times before.
"But a 5-1 win is a victory in anyone's eyes."
He added: "It was never about money. We can stand and say that these guys are responsible for Omagh, that's what we wanted."
Mr McCombe said the campaigning would continue and the relatives would not rest until they got the public inquiry they have sought for so long.
"We have to carry on fighting for that. There is nobody doing time for 29 murders and we have to have a public inquiry to see where things went wrong."
Michael Gallagher, whose son died in the bombing, was delighted to have finally succeeded in their long battle.
"Eight years has just come to an end all of a sudden. It is a result better than we could ever have imagined."
Clearly stunned by the magnitude of the success, he said: "We have sent out an important message to terrorists and their victims around the world — you now have a way of challenging those who've murdered your loved ones.
"I think it is a tremendous moral victory for the families."
Mr Gallagher also had a message for the four men found liable for the bombing: "You think you were clever enough to cover up your tracks and get away with this. You didn't figure on people like us standing up and using all the resources of the law.
"What we have done here today is within the law. What the Real IRA did was outside the law and we have proven that, if the criminal justice system is not capable of delivering some justice, at least civil law is and that's a very strong message we send around the world."