Man charged with Omagh atrocity

A high-profile republican has been charged with murdering 29 people in the Omagh bombing, police said.

Seamus Daly, 43, from Cullaville, Co Monaghan in the Irish Republic, has previously been found liable for the August 1998 Real IRA outrage in Co Tyrone in a landmark civil case.

Tonight, he was charged with 29 counts of murder, two charges linked to the explosion in Omagh and two counts linked to an attempted explosion in Lisburn in April 1998.

Daly was arrested by officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Serious Crime Branch in the Newry area on Monday.

The 29 victims, who included a woman pregnant with twins, died when the dissident republican car bomb detonated in Omagh town centre on a busy Saturday afternoon.

It was the single bloodiest terrorist attack in the history of the Northern Ireland Troubles and came only months after the signing of the historic Good Friday peace accord.

No-one has been successfully convicted of the bombing in a criminal court.

Five years ago Daly was one of four men found responsible for the bomb at Belfast High Court after being sued by some of the victims' families.

The men were ordered to pay £1.6 million to the bereaved relatives.

Daly faced a civil retrial after successfully appealing against the original finding, but the second trial delivered the same outcome as the first, with judge Mr Justice John Gillen ruling him responsible for the attack.

He is due to appear in court in Dungannon tomorrow.