SAOIRSE32

Belfast Telegrapgh

By By Brian Rowan
Tuesday 12, December 2006 - 11:40]

A senior security source has said the police cannot dismiss the possibility of a republican attack on the Sinn Fein leadership over the policing issue.

He was speaking after the PSNI recently warned prominent party figures Gerry Adams and Gerry Kelly about dissident plans and threats to their lives.

On the possibility of an attack on a Sinn Fein leader, the senior security source told this newspaper: “There are people in those groups thinking and talking about it.”

“It is serious in terms (that) it is not beyond possibility,” the source continued.

“People have discussed it.”

The source said participation in policing was “a huge deal for people in republicanism”.

“Some people read this as do or die,” the source said - meaning it is such an emotive issue, an attack on a senior Sinn Fein figure cannot be ruled out.

There are those in senior security positions who believe that any such attack would bring a response from the IRA, and that the dissidents know this.

“I don’t think any of these groups are in the business of committing suicide,” another senior police source told the Belfast Telegraph.

“I don’t think they are on the path of self-destruction.”

Republicans believe the threat to the Adams-McGuinness-Kelly leadership stems from disaffected former members of the IRA and other dissidents - rather than any specific organisation.

One of the security sources who spoke to the Belfast Telegraph pointed to the murder of the Sinn Fein party worker Denis Donaldson, shot at a remote cottage in Co Donegal earlier this year.

That attack came just months after he admitted to being a British agent.

“Bear in mind we didn’t see Donaldson coming,” the security source added.

He also made the point that the police still don’t know who within the republican community killed him.

Republicans say they have their own information about the threats, and say figures who have long been opposed to the Adams-McGuinness peace strategy are using the policing issue to try to “mobilise opposition” and damage the Sinn Fein leadership.

——————

‘We are coming to a crucial time and people are unhappy’

This time it’s different - different from the threat assessment that emerged about a month ago. BRIAN ROWAN examines the latest death threats against Gerry Adams and Gerry Kelly

Around a month ago, it was republicans who were telling us of a threat to Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Gerry Kelly.

It was about policing - about republican support for policing, and a threat to the Sinn Fein leadership if they took their movement and their community in that direction.

The threat, we were told, was from inside republicanism - from disaffected former IRA members and other dissidents, and not from any specific organisation.

The police and the British and Irish governments knew about it, but only because Sinn Fein had told them.

There was no separate or additional information. Now, there is. The latest warnings to Gerry Kelly and Gerry Adams are based on intelligence information available to the PSNI. But how serious is the threat to the Sinn Fein leadership?

The police are aware that there are people € republicans € ” thinking and talking about it”, thinking and talking about attacking prominent Sinn Fein leadership figures such as Adams and Kelly.

“This (participation in policing) is a huge deal for people in republicanism,” a senior police source told the Belfast Telegraph. Some people read this as do or die.”

What he means is the issue is so emotive within republicanism that there are those who might consider the type of attack or attacks that Gerry Adams and Gerry Kelly have been warned about in recent days.

It would be a huge step, but one that the police are not dismissing as a possibility.

“Bear in mind we didn’t see Donaldson coming,” the source said € a reference to the murder of Denis Donaldson in April this year, months after the Sinn Fein party worker admitted he had been an agent for MI5 and the Special Branch.

The police still don’t know who inside the republican community killed him.

“We are coming to a crucial time,” the senior police source told this newspaper and “people are unhappy.”

This is a reference to tensions within republicanism - tensions that are linked to the policing question.

So, it appears this threat that we were first told about a few weeks ago, has moved up a level. Is that how we should now be reading it?

“It’s serious in terms that it is not beyond possibility,” the source replied.

“People have discussed it” - people, who according to another senior security source - “have no time for Adams and McGuinness.”

“We know people - people within republicanism - have been discussing it, but my question still has to do with going beyond talking about it to actually doing it.”

“I don’t think any of these groups (dissident republicans) are in the business of committing suicide,” another security source said.

“I don’t think they are on the path of self-destruction.”

In those comments there is an assessment - that if anyone, dissident or disaffected, attacked Gerry Adams or Gerry Kelly there would be a response, a response from the IRA.

And, that is part of the concern at this time € that if you draw the IRA into this situation, then you destroy the prospect of power-sharing politics and the possibility of republican participation in policing.

Would that goal - that inevitable outcome as some see it - be such a prize to tempt someone inside republicanism to fire a shot at Gerry Adams or Gerry Kelly?

That is the possibility that the police can’t dismiss.

It is why they have warned the two Sinn Fein leaders in Belfast in recent days - not because they are aware of any imminent threat, not because they are convinced that an attack will occur, but because of what might happen - what could happen. It is the concern that someone would dare go beyond the thinking and the talking of attacking Adams and Kelly to the point of actually doing it.

The senior security sources who have spoken to this newspaper dismiss any suggestion that Sinn Fein have manufactured or contrived this situation as an excuse not to do what is required of them on policing.

If the Sinn Fein leadership wanted an excuse not to call a special Ard Fheis or party conference to debate and decide on the policing question, they could simply blame the chief constable, or MI5 or the DUP.

But the fact that Gerry Adams just recently declared a willingness to begin a dialogue with Sir Hugh Orde “on issues which fall within his remit” , is an indication of where republicans are going on the policing question.

And, as they go there, those inside republicanism who have long been opposed to the Adams-McGuinness peace strategy have seized on an issue - policing - to try to mobilise opposition and damage the Sinn Fein leadership.

That won’t stop that leadership moving its party and its community to a position of supporting the PSNI and participating on the policing boards.

That will happen if the right political context can be created. It will happen because it has to happen for the politics to work.

Threats from inside republicanism are not going to stop that.

Irish Times

*Via NEWSHOUND

12/12/2006 07:35

A car used in the murder of a British soldier in Northern Ireland by the IRA was under military surveillance at the time, a new report revealed today.

Special Forces soldiers involved in undercover work in south Armagh confirmed that a Mazda used in the attack by a gunman who opened fire on Lance bombardier Stephen Restorick (23) had been one of a number under surveillance as part of a covert operation.

However they insisted there had been no intelligence linking the car to a sniper attack that killed the soldier who was shot while manning a checkpoint in the village of Bessbrook. He was the last soldier shot in the North by the IRA.

An inquiry by the Police Ombudsman’s Office found no evidence that the murder in February 1997 could have been prevented, but the investigation revealed that original documentation linked to the surveillance operation had been destroyed without explanation.

The report also revealed that a separate complaint, part of which deals with the use of the weapon used in the soldier’s killing is being investigated following a later attempted murder of a police officer.

Investigators from Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan’s office were called in to carry out an investigation after a complaint by the soldier’s parents.

It followed claims in a newspaper by a former soldier who alleged the murder could have been prevented, and that the gun and car used had been bugged by the military. He also claimed police allowed the terrorist attack to go ahead.

A man convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for Mr Restorick’s murder was later cleared by an appeal court in October 2000. Bernard Henry McGinn (43), from Castleblaney, Co Monaghan, had already been freed from jail as part of the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

Sunday Life

By Ciaran McGuigan
10 December 2006

A rogue cop deep in debt set up a bank manager to be taken hostage and robbed by loyalist paramilitaries.

The cop provided detailed information used by LVF killer Jim Fulton and his gang in their bid to rob the Ulster Bank in Newcastle.

The cop even provided the armed gang with a police uniform to trick bank manager Conor McAleavy into going to the bank to check on a faulty alarm.

The role played by the police officer was revealed in bugged conversations between Fulton and undercover police, and published last week in a judgment by Mr Justice Hart.

Fulton boasted that they had received the Newcastle-based cop’s tip off that the bank’s alarm was faulty and would be set off on windy nights. When it was set off it, the police would visit McAleavy’s home to have the alarm checked.

The cop even gave the gang details of shift patterns so they could strike while no police were on the ground, according to Fulton.

The gang had hoped to bag hundreds of thousands in the October 1996 raid, but was forced to flee empty-handed after Mr McAleavy was able to lock himself in a bedroom and raise the alarm.

Last week, Fulton (38), of Queen’s Walk, Portadown, was convicted of 48 different terrorist offences, including the murder of grandmother Elizabeth O’Neill at her home in Portadown 1999. As well as murder, he was convicted of seven counts of attempted murder, explosives charges, drug dealing, hijacking and possession of the gun used by hitman Clifford McKeown to murder taxi driver Michael McGoldrick. The guilty verdicts came at the end of the longest trial in Northern Ireland legal history.

His co-accused, Muriel Gibson (56), of Clos Trevitick, Cornwall, was convicted of membership of the LVF, possession of firearms and explosives and withholding information.

Irelandclick.com

North Belfast News
12/08/2006

A victims’ group has voiced extreme alarm over a song with lyrics about the Shankill butchers which has been transformed into a lullaby and posted on the web.
The Shankill Butchers song, penned by American band, The Decemberists, contains lyrics such as ‘they’re picking at their fingers with their knives and wiping off their cleavers on their thighs’.
John Magee of Relatives For Justice in North Belfast said they were appalled.
“It’s the not first time we’ve heard about it, families said it was insensitive and inappropriate and it’s offensive. If anyone is going to do or write things like this, they should do so from a more informed opinion and look at those affected by people like the Shankill butchers, there’s still a lot of running sores. It’s not helpful to the Shankill community who are trying to move on. It’s a horrible chapter in our past, which shows sectarianism at its worst and most evil.”
It features in a video posted on a popular video website where a man sings the song to his niece to woo her to sleep in her cot.
According to an interview with music website Pitchfork, leader of The Decemberists band Colin Melroy said he was inspired to write the song after reading a biography of Van Morrison.
“I was reading the Van Morrison biography by Johnny Rogan last summer; I was in Ireland, and there’s a section where he talks about the political issues in Northern Ireland, which included a section on the Shankill Butchers… Apparently, parents at the time would actually use it as a cautionary tale and tell their kids that if they didn’t eat their greens or do what they were told, the Shankill Butchers would come and get them. I’ve spoken to Irish people who remember that as kids growing up in that time. So it struck me as something that has such fairy tale proportions that it’s timeless in its horror.”

Derry Journal

12 December 2006

Alene Arkinson, the Castlederg teen who went missing twelve years ago, is the subject of a new search to find her body.
The bogland search is to take place before Christmas.
The schoolgirl was last seen in the company of convicted rapist and murderer Robert Howard when she accepted a lift home from a disco in Donegal. Howard was cleared of her murder in 2005 but was jailed for the murder of a 14-year-old girl in Kent.
The bogland to be searched is off the Drumquin Road close to where searches were carried out by a team from Queen’s University.
The news comes as it’s emerged that a ’secret’ inquiry has been held into the Public Prosecution Service’s handling of the case against Howard. It’s been claimed that the PPS failed to alert the Arkinson family to the inquiry. The findings are expected to be released today.
Arlene’s sister, Kathleen, said: “I knew nothing about it - no-one has asked us anything. They could have let us know what was happening. We’re entitled to know. Let us have our say on behalf of Arlene. It’s been terrible, a long twelve years of our life. Every day we think about Arlene, and now especially coming up to Christmas. All we have is Arlene’s picture. They say time is a healer but it’s not.”
A spokesperson for the PPS refused to comment.
It is understood that the inquiry also examined the former DPP’s role in another attack by Howard, when he drugged and raped another teenager living in Castlederg in 1993. The Arkinson family say that they never received a proper answer as to why that case went so badly. Howard received a suspended sentence.
Speaking of the searches, Kathleen said:”Hopefully with the new technology they will find something.”

BN.ie

12/12/2006 - 10:50:46

The Police Ombudsman in the North has criticised the disappearance of critical evidence needed to investigate claims that the murder of a British soldier could have been prevented.

Stephen Restorick, the last serving British soldier to be killed in the North, was shot dead by an IRA sniper in south Armagh in 1997.

His parents lodged a complaint with the Police Ombudsman after a former undercover soldier claimed the attack could have been prevented, but was allowed to go ahead to protect an informer.

The Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, confirmed today that the car used in the shooting was under surveillance and said police should have been watching it closer.

However, she said many documents relating to the case had been destroyed and, in the absence of these records, she could find nothing to prove that Mr Restorick’s life could have been saved.

Belfast Telegraph

Tuesday 12, December 2006

Sinn Fein’s legal challenge to the Independent Monitoring Commission is due to begin in the High Court in London later today.

The party is seeking a declaration that the establishment of the commission was unlawful and falls outside the remit of the Good Friday Agreement.

Moreover, it seeks a ruling that its membership is biased, its findings based on hearsay and that its recommendations discriminate against Sinn Fein voters.

If successful, the party wants a declaration that the commission’s reports are void, the financial penalties against Sinn Fein illegal and its findings lack any application of proof.

The British government will vigorously contest these arguments, contending it had the right to set up the commission and decide its membership.

The case is likely to last at least three days.

BBC

The Police Ombudsman has rejected a claim that the murder of the last soldier killed by the IRA in Northern Ireland could have been prevented.

Stephen Restorick was 23 when he was killed

Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick, 23, was shot by a sniper at a checkpoint in Bessbrook in February 1997.

Eighteen months ago, an ex-soldier told the Sunday Times that the killing was permitted to protect an informer.

Mr Restorick’s parents complained to the Ombudsman, but Nuala O’Loan said there was no evidence for the claim.

The Ombudsman said the car used in the shooting had been under surveillance by police at the time because of intelligence information that it was to be used in some kind of an attack.

Mrs O’Loan said: “The man who made these allegations was a former member of the Special Forces but he was not present on the day of the attack nor was he part of a surveillance team operating in the area at the time.

“While we have uncovered evidence that the stolen Mazda car used in the attack was under surveillance, we have found no evidence that a listening device had been planted on board nor that anyone knew about the specific plans for the car that day.

“We also examined the issue of whether the gun used in the attack had been fitted with a tracking device as alleged by the undercover officer.

“I am satisfied, given the level of evidence obtained during the inquiry, that this was not the case.”

Mr Restorick from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire was the last soldier to be killed before the IRA called its second ceasefire.

He had just handed back a driving licence to a woman driver who had stopped at the checkpoint when he was shot in the back.

As part of the Ombudsman’s inquiry, the ex-soldier and others who were on duty with Lance Bombardier Restorick at the time he was shot, as well as senior military and police officers, including the detective who headed up the murder investigation were all interviewed.

Mrs O’Loan said: “We have established that there had been a surveillance operation in the area for some considerable time and that a number of other properties and vehicles were also involved, including the car which was eventually used in the attack.

“It is very regrettable that police did not pay closer attention to this particular car, given that they had concerns about it.

“However we have not uncovered any evidence they had information which would have allowed them to prevent Stephen’s murder.”

BN.ie

10/12/2006 - 21:18:38

Dissident republican terrorists have been plotting to assassinate Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, it was claimed tonight.

The new attempt to murder the West Belfast MP was aborted because of his own security arrangements, according to a report.

Police went to his home in the last few days to alert him that a possible shooting was being planned.

Mr Adams claimed the threat was because of internal party discussions over whether to take the historic step of publicly endorsing the North’s police service for the first time.

It followed earlier warnings to other senior Sinn Féin representatives Gerry Kelly and Martin McGuinness that they too were being targeted by rogue republicans.

Mr Adams said: “Some weeks ago the Sinn Féin leadership expressed concern about the coming together of a tiny number of disaffected former IRA people and elements of various micro-groups including some members of the INLA (Irish National Liberation Army).

“This has become more serious as a debate within Sinn Féin has opened up on the issue of ending political policing.

“We believe that there is now an active threat to senior members of the Sinn Féin leadership and we are taking this matter seriously.

“I understand that there are republicans who are concerned about current political developments and especially discussions around policing.”

A written message delivered to him by officers revealed details of the threat.

It said: “Dissident republicans recently discussed mounting an attack, possibly a shooting, on Gerry Adams, but discounted such a plan due to Adams’ security arrangements.

“You are advised to seek advice on and take steps to protect your personal security.”

It was the second time in just over a month that Mr Adams has been warned by police that his life is in danger and came days after Mr Kelly was alerted.

But the Sinn Féin chief vowed not to be swayed by any plot.

“I would urge them not to allow themselves to be exploited or manipulated by individuals who are now operating to their own malign agenda and who should know better,” he told the Andersonstown News.

“As for Sinn Féin, we will not be deflected from what we think is the right thing to do.”

A Police Service of Northern Ireland spokeswoman refused to confirm if officers contacted Mr Adams.

She said: “We do not discuss the security of individuals. But where we feel there’s a need to warn them we will advise them of their security.”

BBC ON THIS DAY

12 December 1975

A six-day siege has ended peacefully in London after four IRA gunmen freed their two hostages and gave themselves up to police.

Both hostages were released unharmed

They are in custody at Paddington Green Police Station after what has become known as the Balcombe Street siege.

Police are also questioning them about a further 100 incidents which have taken place across the south east of Britain relating to the IRA.

The hostages John Matthews, 54, and his wife Sheila, 53, have been taken to University College Hospital where a spokesman said they were “shaken and weak” but doing well.

A breakthrough in the stand-off at the couple’s west London home at Marylebone came at 1355 GMT today when the gang’s spokesman “Tom” shouted to police they wanted to negotiate.

A telephone, replacing one earlier destroyed by the gunmen, was lowered on to the flat’s balcony and detective chief superintendent Peter Imbert promised them hot food for the release of Mrs Matthews.

Hostages safe

In the first of a series of dramatic scenes a masked man appeared at the balcony and was ordered to keep his arms raised.

Mrs Matthews emerged 90 seconds later and was assisted by the man to the safety of waiting police on a neighbouring balcony under a metal bar.

AT 1454 hot sausages, Brussels sprouts and potatoes, peaches and cream were lowered into the flat.

Police resumed contact with the men at 1550 and 25 minutes later they agreed to surrender.

Following precise procedures from deputy assistant commissioner Wilford Gibson they emerged one by one with their hands on their heads.

After the first two men were searched and handcuffed Mr Matthews was set free under police orders.

Then a third man was ushered out followed by the gang’s spokesman Tom.

Cheers and applause broke out as relief replaced fear on the estate which police had evacuated and filled with officers.

The stand-off began when the men stormed the Matthews’ flat as they fled from police after a shooting incident in Mayfair.

In Context

The collapse of the IRA’s 1974-1975 ceasefire triggered a wave of bombings by the four men who became known as the “Balcombe Street Gang” - Martin O’Connell, Edward Butler, Harry Duggan and Hugh Doherty.

They detonated their first 10 devices in five days and killed Ross McWhirter, the co-editor of the Guinness Book of Records, after he offered £50,000 for information leading to their arrest.

When they were forced to surrender to police after the failed Balcombe Street siege they were charged with 10 murders and 20 bombings and jailed for life.

They were freed in April 1999 under the terms of the multi-party peace deal for Northern Ireland, known as the Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998.

BBC

DUP leader Ian Paisley has said that if all his conditions are fulfilled he will accept the first minister’s post after a spring election.

Ian Paisley has said he will accept the first minister’s post

The DUP leader released his statement after confusion about exactly what occurred in Stormont on Friday morning.

In his speech, Mr Paisley said the circumstances had not been reached where there could be a nomination or designation by his party.

Other parties said that the DUP position needed to be clarified.

Sinn Fein nominated Martin McGuinness as deputy first minister.

Mr Paisley said in the assembly chamber: “There can only be an agreement involving Sinn Fein when there has been delivery by the republican movement, tested and proved over a credible period in terms of support for the PSNI (the police), the courts, the rule of law, a complete end to paramilitary and criminal activity and the removal of terrorist structures.

“Clearly, as Sinn Fein is not yet ready to take the decisive step forward on policing, the DUP is not required to commit to any aspect of power-sharing in advance of such certainty.”

However, the two governments later said that it was his intention to accept the nomination after “all the conditions agreed at St Andrews have been met”.

Statement signed

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said Mr Paisley has now provided the clarity that was missing from his statement in the assembly.

Mr Ahern said the statement was welcome and had removed the doubt that had been raised about the DUP’s approach to power-sharing.

A group of DUP assembly members also said their party had not taken part in any process to nominate a team to head up a future Stormont administration.

After the abandoned assembly meeting, 12 DUP assembly members signed a statement saying that they not had taken part in a designation process.

It said “nothing that we have said or done” could be taken by the government as such an indication.

The statement was signed by four of the party’s nine MPs.

Nigel Dodds, the Rev William McCrea, Gregory Campbell and David Simpson all signed the statement.

It read: “Given the total lack of movement on behalf of Sinn Fein on the issue of support for the rule of law, the courts and the Police Service of Northern Ireland, nothing that we have said or done today can be taken by the Government as an indication that they can imply shadow, designate or any other status to anyone in relation to the Office of First and Deputy First Minister.”

It was also signed by Lord Morrow and his fellow assembly members Diane Dodds, Paul Girvan, Stephen Moutray, Nelson McCausland, Mervyn Storey, Tom Buchanan and assembly deputy speaker Jim Wells.

BBC

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness has started working in a suite of offices which used to be allocated to Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister.

Martin McGuinness was nominated as deputy first ministerial

The party said it had taken up an offer of additional resources to assist its work on the new Stormont Programme for Government Committee.

However, it said it was not using the old deputy first minister’s office.

The DUP is considering if it will take up accommodation offered to the four main parties by the secretary of state.

Sinn Fein has been allocated a number of offices in the suite which used to be occupied by Seamus Mallon and Mark Durkan when they were deputy first ministers.

The work is being led by Mr McGuinness.

The additional resources mean three extra advisors who will be paid the equivalent of £45,000 per year.

The DUP has insisted neither Mr McGuinness nor DUP leader Ian Paisley should have any trappings of office.

Fresh elections

The DUP said it had yet to decide whether to take up the extra resources.

DUP sources said in the future the first and deputy first minister’s offices are likely to be in Stormont Castle not the assembly building.

Sinn Fein nominated Mr McGuinness as deputy first minister when the assembly met on 24 November.

DUP leader Ian Paisley has said that if all his conditions are fulfilled he will accept the first minister’s post after a spring election.

The deadline for devolution is 26 March, with fresh assembly elections set for 7 March.

An NI assembly motion condemning government plans to introduce equality legislation for gays, lesbians and bisexuals has fallen after a tied vote.

After a two-hour debate at Stormont, 39 assembly members voted in favour of a DUP motion and 39 against.

The party claimed the new legislation could place Christian-run businesses on the “wrong side of the law”.

DUP sources claimed the vote was tied because Sinn Fein was “able to use the vote of a deceased asssembly member”.

West Belfast assembly member Michael Ferguson died in September. The St Andrews Agreement Act enables parties to use the vote of an assembly member who has died but has not yet been replaced.

Criticised

During the debate, the DUP said Christian-run businesses would be deemed to be breaking the law “if they refused access to their goods and services on eithical grounds”.

Both the DUP and Ulster Unionist Party criticised the government for implementing the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations in Northern Ireland on 1 January ahead of the rest of the UK and for “holding only a two-month consultation”.

The DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson claimed the regulations would make schools which teach traditional Christian views “liable to a harassment claim from gay pupils if they taught homosexuality was sinful”.

“All six of the world’s major religions are opposed to homosexual practice. Judaism, Islam and Christianity all teach that homosexual practice is sinful,” he said.

“The regulations will interfere with the freedom to manifest to one’s religion because these are new restrictions.”

Sinn Fein equality spokeswoman Caitriona Ruane accused the DUP of “whipping up homophobic sentiment with the motion”.

“This motion is part of yesterday’s agenda, part of the bad old days of the past,” she said.

“Move on - show leadership. Days of second-class citizenship and hiding our identities are gone.”

Ulster Unionist Dermot Nesbitt said the law would “leave Christian bookshops and adoption agencies vulnerable to harassment claims, despite their deeply-held views”.

“There are certain fundamental issues that require to be addressed and the process by which this government is taking this act forward not only denies that proper process of equality throughout the United Kingdom, but also denies the rights of people who truly feel very concerned,” he said.

SDLP equality spokeswoman Patricia Lewsley, whose party`s youth wing staged a protest against the motion outside Parliament Buildings, accused the DUP of “scaremongering”.

“All they will prevent is discrimination and harassment - not the teaching of religious doctrine,” she said.

“Harassment only occurs if there is unwanted conduct which has purpose or intent of violating dignity or creating an intimidating, degrading or offensive environment.”

Alliance Party leader David Ford acknowledged that the government`s consultation period during August and September “was not ideal”.

“I am not sure that there would have been any different response had there been another four weeks or another 14 weeks,” he said.

BBC

A review of the work of the Forensic Science service in Northern Ireland found mistakes in more than a third of cases, the Omagh bomb trial has heard.

In the last six years, the service had its accreditation suspended twice, after revelations of a falsified signature and lab practice concerns.

About 1,200 cases were checked and 455 were found to contain mistakes.

Sean Hoey, 37, of County Armagh denies a total of 58 charges, including murder as a result of the 1998 Omagh bombing.

Mr Hoey is an electrician from Molly Road, Jonesborough.

The Omagh bomb trial heard that a review of the FSNI’s work was carried out by a consultancy firm, during a time when the UK Accreditation Service had suspended the service’s accreditation.

A series of cases were checked between 2001 and 2003. In that two-year period it was responsible for about 2,400 cases - of those, a sample 1,200 were reviewed.

The firm found 455 of the cases contained mistakes - more than a third.

The acting operations director of the Forensic Science Services Northern Ireland, Samuel James Speers, said the errors were “generally administrative” and they were not all the responsibility of that agency.

DNA confusion

But the judge, Mr Justice Weir, asked if that mattered.

He added: “Whether the errors were caused by the police or the laboratory, errors still resulted”.

On Tuesday, Mr Speers is expected to face further questioning about the reasons for the lab’s accreditation being suspended twice - once in 2001 and once in 2003.

Earlier there were more questions about the reliability of Low Copy Number DNA - a key part of the prosecution case and an issue that has dominated the trial for weeks.

Dr Peter Gill a forensic scientist and expert in the field accepted that there was still a “lot of confusion” about the technique and differences in how it is used worldwide.

The trial continues.

Belfast Telegraph

Monday, December 11, 2006

Two Irishmen and a Frenchman, with suspected links to the Real IRA, have been sentenced by a court in France.
They were charged with criminal association with a terrorist group. It follows the discovery of weapons in 2003.

Gary Roche, arrested in Portugal last year, was sentenced to 4 years in prison and is forbidden from ever returning to French territory.

Kieron Doran, received the same sentence after being tried in absentia. An international arrest warrant has been issued for him.

Bernard le Gac received a suspended two-year sentence.