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Murphy defence requests withdrawal of case

The three judges of the Special Criminal Court will give a decision tomorrow afternoon on a defence application to withdraw the case against Colm Murphy.

The 49-nine-year-old publican and builder, from Ravensdale, Dundalk, is charged with conspiring to cause an explosion and is the only person charged in connection with the Omagh bombing.

Colm Murphy denies the charges and claims that confessions he allegedly made following his arrest were fabricated.

The defence call to have the case thrown out came after revelations were made in court about Mr Murphy's Garda interviews. Scientific tests carried out on the interviews showed that a page had been re-written.

Today, a Garda witness, Detective Garda Geraldine Butler, was called but not questioned by the prosecution. Senior Counsel, Peter Charlton, said that as a result of issues in the trial, she had carried out what he called ESDA tests.

Under cross-examination by Michael O'Higgins, Detective Garda Butler said that she had found indentations on page three of an interview conducted by two detectives, Liam Donnelly and John Fahy.

She said the only words she could definitely read were "Sheila", "grew", "isn't", and the reply from Colm Murphy, "that's right".

She agreed with Michael O'Higgins that the only scientific conclusion, which could be presented in evidence, was that page three had been rewritten.

The Court then heard submissions from the defence that there were such manifest inconsistencies and contradictions in the case that no court could reasonably convict, and the case should be withdrawn.

Earlier, a former employee of Mr Murphy gave evidence on the 20th day of the trial. He told the court that he lent his mobile phone to Colm Murphy the day before the bombing in 1998 and it was returned to him about four days later.

Patrick Terrence Morgan from Cullyhanna, County Armagh, denied that he had nominated Mr Murphy as having taken his phone to avoid being charged with the bombing himself. Mr Murphy is also from Ravensdale, Dundalk.