Omagh bomb families call for special advocate for closed hearings at inquiry

By Rebecca Black, PA

Survivors and families of those killed in the Omagh bomb have asked to be represented by a special advocate in closed hearings at the public inquiry.

Omagh Bombing Inquiry chairman Lord Turnbull is hearing arguments around applications during dedicated hearings this week.

Counsel to the inquiry Paul Greaney KC said the inquiry, which is probing whether the 1998 dissident republican bomb attack could have been prevented, will hear some sensitive security evidence in closed hearings.

The atrocity in the Co Tyrone town on August 15 1998 killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

Speaking during hearings in Belfast on Monday, Mr Greaney said the inquiry’s legal team recognises that survivors and the bereaved have spent 25 seeking the truth, and may be “suspicious or even cynical of the UK state’s willingness to engage in a way that is straightforward and wholehearted with this inquiry”.

“We acknowledge too, that the idea of evidence being heard in circumstances in which the families and survivors will be excluded is one that they will find difficult to accept, to say the least, and accordingly, we regard it as entirely understandable that some, although not all, have suggested special advocates should be appointed to represent their interests in any closed hearings, and have made applications for that to occur,” he said.