9 Jun 2009

Damages awarded for Omagh bombing

4:02 pm on 9 June 2009

After an eight-year legal battle, relatives of the 29 people killed in the Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland in 1998 have been awarded compensation of 1.5 million pounds ($US2.4 million).

A judge at the High Court in Belfast said on Monday that there was overwhelming evidence the attack was carried out by four members of the dissident Irish Republican group, the Real IRA.

No one has been convicted of the Omagh attack, which was the bloodiest in more than 30 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.

The civil case was brought in 2001 by some of the families of victims of the atrocity.

Civil cases have a much lower burden of proof, with the judge reaching his verdict on the balance of probabilities.