A Co Armagh man has been acquitted of a conspiracy charge in relation to the 1998 Omagh bomb by direction of the Special Criminal Court after key evidence was ruled inadmissible.
Colm Murphy (57), a building contractor and publican with an address at Jordan’s Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth, had been accused of conspiring in Dundalk between August 13th and 16th, 1998 with another person to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in the State or elsewhere.
His counsel Michael O’Higgins had applied to the court for a direction to acquit his client because there was not enough evidence to convict him.
Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding at the three-judge non-jury court, today ruled that the evidence relating to 15 interviews by members of An Garda Síochána was inadmissbible.
This follows a Court of Criminal Appeal finding that notes of interviews by two of the interviewing gardaí had been falsified, leading to a quashing of Mr Murphy's first conviction for the offence.
Mr Murphy was freed on bail in 2005 after the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed his original conspiracy conviction in relation to the Omagh bombing. He had been jailed for 14 years by the Special Criminal Court in January 2002 for his alleged role in the bombing, which killed 29 people and injured more than 300.
He was the first person to be convicted in the Republic or Northern Ireland in connection with the Real IRA bombing, the worst atrocity in the history of the Troubles.
But in January 2005 the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial after finding that the court of trial had failed to give proper regard to altered Garda interview notes and that there had been "an invasion of the presumption of innocence" in the judgment on Mr Murphy.
Detective Garda John Fahy and Detective Garda Liam Donnelly were charged with forgery and perjury after the original Murphy trial but both gardai were acquitted of the charges and Det Gda Donnelly has since died.
Today's ruling brings to an end Mr Murphy's retrial.
Speaking outside the court, Mr Murphy said: :“I am glad to see it’s all over. Find out who was behind it - MI5 agents setting people up.”