A key prosecution witness in the trial of Mr Colm Murphy, the only man charged in connection with the Omagh bombing, yesterday retracted his evidence at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.
Mr Patrick Terence Morgan, from Cullyhanna, Co Armagh, said he was put under pressure by the gardaí to say he lent his mobile phone to Mr Murphy the day before the bomb attack in Omagh on August 15th, 1998.
In November Mr Morgan told the court that he had lent his mobile phone to Mr Murphy on August 14th and that it was returned on the Monday or Tuesday of the next week.
The prosecution is alleging Mr Murphy lent his own mobile phone and Mr Morgan's mobile phone to the dissident republicans who carried out the Omagh bombing which killed 29 people and injured over 300.
When the trial resumed yesterday after an adjournment of almost two months because of the illness of one of the three judges, Mr Morgan was recalled to the witness box. He was treated as "a hostile witness" following an application by prosecuting counsel Mr Peter Charleton SC.
Mr Morgan, who told the court he was a second cousin of the accused, said he had gone to a solicitor in Newry last Monday and said that statements he made to the RUC were improperly obtained and added: "I can't sleep because I did not tell the truth."
Mr Morgan said he was put under pressure by gardaí. They wanted him to give evidence against Mr Murphy and they threatened that he would be "lifted".
Mr Morgan said: "I can't sleep. I can't live with myself after this act saying I gave the phone to him." He said he went to his solicitor because he wanted it "off my conscience".
Asked by Mr Charleton what he was in court to say, Mr Morgan replied: "I'm here to say I did not give him the phone." Mr Charleton said: "At all?" and he replied: "At all, it was in the van." Mr Charleton asked him if he was under pressure today and he said: "No, I am not under pressure today."
It was the 24th day of the trial of Mr Murphy (49), a father of four, a building contractor and publican who is from Co Armagh with an address at Jordan's Corner, Ravensdale, Co Louth. He 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.
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.
On November 14th last Mr Morgan said in evidence that he worked as a bricklayer for the accused. He said that the RUC had seized a Nokia mobile phone belonging to him when it searched his house in February, 1999. Mr Morgan said he remembered August 14th, 1998, the day before the Omagh bombing.
He said that 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 said he got his phone back on the following Monday or Tuesday.
But yesterday Mr Morgan denied that he had lent Mr Murphy the phone. He said it went "missing" from the glove compartment of his van on Friday 14th. He found it under the seat at about 5 p.m. the following Monday.
Mr Charleton asked the witness was it the case that his phone just "tumbled out of the glove compartment and simply concealed itself for the whole weekend of the 14th, 15th and 16th August"? "I don't know where the phone was," the witness replied.
He said he had received a call from the gardaí at 10.30 p.m. on November 13th last while he was in Carrickmacross. Mr Morgan claimed that the gardaí wanted an agreement that he would testify that he had loaned his phone to Mr Murphy and if not, he would be taken "by force" by police and soldiers "in a helicopter". "I did not lend my phone to anyone and I did not give it to anyone" he told the court. Asked to explain how his phone travelled the same route as the Omagh bomb, he said: "I can't."
Mr Charleton asked the witness if he was aware that Mr Murphy's phone rang his phone at 18.02 p.m. on Friday August 14th. The witness replied that he was not.
Counsel suggested it was "entirely possible that Mr Murphy had your phone on the day of the Omagh bomb?" The witness replied : "He might have had it." "Why do you say that?", Mr Charleton asked.
"I don't know who had the phone," the witness said.
The case continues on Monday.