Omagh bomber was an informer who was protected at expense of investigation, inquiry told

One of the Omagh bombers was an informer who was subsequently protected at the expense of an effective police investigation, a former senior police officer has told the inquiry into the atrocity. “I believe, just for total clarity, one of the people who brought the bomb to Omagh on the day was an agent,” retired DCS Norman Baxter said in his evidence to the inquiry in Belfast on Thursday. Baxter, who was the senior investigating officer in charge of the police inquiry into the bombing from 2002 to 2008, said senior figures in policing in Northern Ireland and the Republic had prior knowledge that a bomb was being transported across the Border. He said there was “a sequence of events in the [police] investigation which points to a co-ordinated obstruction of the investigation” and this had “prevented” those responsible from being detected. READ MOREThese events included his own appointment as senior investigating officer, as in his view he was “the least qualified person” for the job, and he recalled telling colleagues at the time “this is a poisoned chalice ... I’m being sent here because it’s not to be solved”.He also said that if opportunities to disrupt previous dissident republican attacks had been taken, there was a “high level of probability” the Omagh bombing could have been prevented. A total of 31 people, including unborn twins, died and hundreds were injured when a car bomb planted by the dissident republican group the Real IRA exploded in the centre of the Co Tyrone town on August 15th, 1998.The inquiry, which opened in 2024 under Alan Turnbull, is examining whether the atrocity could reasonably have been prevented by British state authorities. The inquiry has identified 27 “key individuals” – 14 of whom have convictions for terrorist offences – including Michael McKevitt, Colm Murphy, Seamus Daly and Liam Campbell, who were found liable in a civil case for the Omagh bombing, and Seamus McKenna, who was found not liable but the inquiry heard “played a key role”.[ ‘So ashamed’ of ‘crass comments’, Ronnie Flanagan tells Omagh bomb public inquiryOpens in new window ]Baxter outlined on Thursday how he had been at an unrelated meeting with the then assistant deputy chief constable the day before the bombing when they were interrupted by the regional head of Special Branch about an “urgent” matter. He told the inquiry the Special Branch officer informed them “the Garda believed that a car bomb was coming the next day ... coming north next day ... they didn’t know where it was going, or the car”.Baxter said when he heard of the explosion in Omagh the following day, “my immediate thought was that must have been what they were talking about yesterday, so ... very clear recollection of the meeting”.He said he subsequently attended many meetings with some of the families of those killed in the bombing, “and they had a view on the security forces having pre-knowledge, and I sat at those meetings knowing what I knew, but unable to tell them”, because the information was classified. “But doing my best to investigate, to get the solutions,” he said. Senior counsel to the inquiry, Paul Greaney, put it to Baxter: “Your hypothesis is that senior figures within policing in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland knew of matters of importance before the bombing that they did not act upon, and that gives them a reason for the investigation not to succeed?”[ Warning to Defence Forces night before bombing ended with ‘Omagh, Omagh, Omagh’, inquiry toldOpens in new window ]“Clearly, in my mind, there was knowledge that something was coming north,” Baxter said. “And there are people who don’t want that to come out and they ... feared it would come out if there were an effective investigation?” the barrister said. “Yes,” the former senior police officer said. Referencing a remark by Ronnie Flanagan, who was chief constable at the time of the Omagh bombing, that “no stone would be left unturned” to bring those responsible to justice, Baxter said “the problem was that people had hid some of the stones, so the investigators couldn’t find the stones to look under”.He said material was “deliberately hidden from the investigation, not accidentally, deliberately hidden to prevent the investigators finding out, and at an organisational level, there was a failure to ensure that all the stones ... were still available to be looked at”.He said the removal of these “stones” had “prevented people from being detected” and his “hypothesis, but based on some reasonable understanding” was that this was about “source protection, methodology protection, and a political pressure not to disrupt the peace process by ... not having a large-scale police operation in south Armagh to destabilise the ceasefire”.He said an additional factor could have been “to prevent activities prior to the bombing being exposed”, but this was “more in the speculative”.The inquiry continues.