A page of Garda interview notes with Mr Colm Murphy, the only person charged in connection with the Omagh bombing, had been rewritten, a Garda forensic expert told the Special Criminal Court yesterday.
Det Garda Geraldine Butler said she carried out an ESDA test on three pages of an interview conducted with Mr Murphy by Det Garda∅ Liam Donnelly and John Fahy in February, 1999. The test showed indentations on one page of the interview notes and she was able to make out the words "Sheila Gre . . . sister" on the page.
Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, defending, put it to her that the only scientific conclusion she could come to was that the page, as presented in evidence, had been rewritten. "That's correct", she replied.
It was the 20th day of the trial of Mr Murphy (49), a building contractor and publican from Co Armagh with an address at Jordan's Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiring in Dundalk with another person not before the court to cause an explosion in the State or elsewhere between August 13th and 16th, 1998.
The prosecution is alleging that Mr Murphy lent his mobile phone and another mobile phone he obtained from an innocent person to the people who planted the Omagh bomb.
At the conclusion of the prosecution's case Mr O'Higgins applied to the court that it would be unsafe to convict Mr Murphy on the basis of the evidence tendered by the prosecution.
He submitted that the evidence had shown "manifest inconsistencies and contradictions" and that the evidence of Det Garda Butler showed that a "very serious abuse" had occurred. He said there were "genuine grave questions" about every aspect of the interrogations by the garda∅ of Mr Murphy.
Mr Peter Charleton SC, prosecuting, submitted in reply that the case against Mr Murphy rested on three planks - the admissions made by him to garda∅, the lies he told to Mr Patrick Terence Morgan with a view to getting his mobile phone, and the telephone evidence. He said the prosecution case was that Mr Murphy had "fixed knowledge" in relation to the conspiracy he was involved in and that he lent assistance in terms of the mobile phones to that conspiracy.
Earlier in the trial, Det Garda James B. Hanley told the court that Mr Murphy had admitted in interviews that he lent his mobile phone to known republicans, knowing it would be used for moving bombs.
The court has heard detailed evidence of mobile phone traffic around Omagh and Dundalk on the day of the bombing. Evidence was given that 11 calls were made to and from a mobile phone belonging to Mr Murphy on August 15th, 1998, the day of the bombing. Six of the calls were routed through mobile phone masts on the Vodafone network in Co Tyrone and five were routed on the Eircell network south of the Border.
Earlier yesterday, Mr Morgan, from Cullyhanna, Co Armagh, said that he worked as a bricklayer for Mr Murphy. He said that the RUC had seized a Nokia mobile phone belonging to him when they searched his house in February, 1999.
Mr Morgan said he remembered August 14th, 1998, the day before the Omagh bombing. He had his mobile phone with him that day when he was blocklaying at Dublin City University. He said he "gave a loan" of his phone to Mr Murphy. "He came on to the job and said his phone wasn't working right and he asked for a lend of the phone, so I gave it to him", he said.
Mr Morgan said he had never lent his phone to Mr Murphy before and he did not give him his PIN number. He got his phone back on the following Monday or Tuesday. He said it was in a van belonging to a worker. "I saw it there and I put it in my pocket."
Cross-examined by Mr O'Higgins, Mr Morgan denied that it had been suggested to him that he should "nominate" Mr Murphy for taking his phone or else he would be charged with the Omagh bombing.
The trial continues today.