THE son of a man who was convicted of the 1998 Omagh bombing but later cleared in a retrial, has had his own conviction for explosives offences quashed by the Court of Appeal.
Conan Murphy (29), with an address at Plaster, Mount Pleasant, Dundalk, Co Louth, who is the son of Colm Murphy – a Dundalk man convicted of the Real IRA bombing of Omagh which killed 29 people but later cleared in a retrial following a successful appeal – now faces a retrial.
The Special Criminal Court found Conan Murphy guilty of the possession of explosive substances at Aghaboys, Mount Pleasant on May 22nd, 2010 and the non-jury court sentenced him to eight-and-a-half years imprisonment on March 9, 2012.
His co-accused Philip McKevitt (62) of Aghaboys, Mount Pleasant, was also jailed for eight-and-a-half years having been found guilty of the same offence at his home on the same date.
The Court of Appeal quashed Conan Murphy's and Philip McKevitt's convictions on Friday day over the Special Criminal Court's failure to permit arguments in relation to a Supreme Court declaration the previous day.
The Court of Appeal felt that "it must quash the conviction," Mr Justice Birmingham said.
It was submitted on the men's behalf that a retrial should not be ordered.
However, Mr Justice Birmingham said the case for a retrial was "overwhelming."
He said the events which were the subject at trial were matters of "extreme seriousness" and the interests of justice required that guilt or otherwise should be determined by a trial in due course of law.
Mr Justice Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan and Mr Justice John Edwards, ordered the retrial and remanded both men back to the Special Criminal Court until Tuesday next.
During their trial, which began in December 2011, the court heard that gardaí who raided Philip McKevitt’s home discovered in an outbuilding an "adaptive" advertising trailer constructed for the purposes of concealing two gas containers which in turn had been modified to cause an explosion.
Gardai gave evidence that the device, which carried an advertisement for "FlogTheLot.ie," had reached the final stages of construction before its intended deployment against security forces in Northern Ireland.
Chief Superintendant Diarmuid O’Sullivan had told the court that the device had a capacity of approximately 500lbs of explosive mix, giving it the potential to cause death and destruction comparable to a device which killed 29 people in the past.
