Liam Campbell and Michael Colm Murphy deny Omagh assets

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Liam Campbell and Michael Colm Murphy denied holding significant assets during questioning before Edmund Honohan, Master of the High Court, in Dublin on 14 October 2015. The questioning concerned enforcement of a civil judgment arising from the 1998 Omagh bombing.

Campbell said he owned only half-shares, with his wife, in their family home and an adjoining 3.5-acre plot. Murphy denied owning assets, saying his former wife had “cleaned me” following their divorce. He acknowledged previous involvement with property assets and a company but denied involvement in the bombing or the IRA.

The men had been found responsible for the bombing in a civil action before the High Court in Belfast and ordered to pay the victims’ families £1.6m sterling. That judgment had been formally recognised in the Republic.

Murphy said he had been wrongly charged and convicted before the Special Criminal Court in connection with the bombing. He attributed his conviction to “garda perjury” and said he was subsequently acquitted at a retrial.

The High Court had ordered sworn asset statements in June 2015. The families alleged that the men had failed to provide them. In September 2015, Mr Justice Anthony Barr ordered that they be attached and brought before the High Court in Dublin to explain their alleged contempt. Their lawyers said they attended voluntarily.

Both undertook to provide sworn statements listing assets worth more than €5,000 in which they had an interest by 23 October 2015.