Britain criticised over man sought in Omagh case

The father of one of the Omagh bomb victims today accused the British government of misleading the familes over the whereabouts…

The father of one of the Omagh bomb victims today accused the British government of misleading the familes over the whereabouts of a man who allegedly knew about the attack.

Mr Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan died in the August 1998 attack, said it was a scandal that Mr Paddy Dixon, an alleged "Real IRA" informant now appeared to be living in Britain.

The families of the 29 victims of the atrocity had urged the British to put pressure on the Irish Government to allow Mr Dixon to be interviewed by the Omagh investigation team.

Mr Gallagher said: "We have demanded that the Irish Government make this man available. To discover that he is now living in the UK is unbelievable and is another shabby example of how the families are being treated.

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"The British Government have been disingenuous on how they have dealt with the .families. We have been allowed to believe that this man wasn't under their control."

His comments followed a question by Tory MP Laurence Robertson at Northern Ireland Question Time. Using Parliamentary privilege to name Mr Dixon, he pressed Junior Northern Ireland Minister Mr Ian Pearson to reveal where he was now living

"Can you explain why the Irish Republic refused to hand over Paddy Dixon who was wanted in connection with questioning with the Omagh bombing?

"Can you also tell me if Paddy Dixon has been relocated to the United Kingdom, because recently he was stopped in Cardiff by the authorities.

"He was found to have a great deal of cash on him. Why were the Police Service of Northern Ireland not alerted to the fact that he was in Great Britain?"

Mr Pearson replied that he would look into the matter.