Committal proceedings have begun against a south Armagh man accused of murdering 29 people in the Omagh bombing seven years ago.
Sean Hoey appeared before Belfast Magistrates Court for the preliminary hearing. He arrived from Maghaberry Prison, where he has been on remand.
The 36-year-old electrician from Jonesborough faces 61 terrorist and explosives charges. They include the Real IRA bomb attack in Omagh in August 1998.
29 people died in the attack including a woman pregnant with twins.
It took almost 15 minutes for the court clerk to read out all the charges. During that time Mr Hoey sat impassively in the dock.
Defence counsel then made a submission to the magistrate concerning the admissibility of some of the evidence by three expert witnesses.
The three include a forensic scientist, a statistician and a voice analysis expert.
The magistrate rejected the submission by the defence.
This afternoon the court heard from a professor of forensic statistics and a member of the forensic science agency in Belfast.
Forensic scientist Dennis McAuley told the court that having examined 12 bombs in Northern Ireland up to and including the Omagh device, it tended to support the proposition that the units had been made by the same person.
Asked by prosecution counsel Gordon Kerr if he was aware the same person's DNA had been found on three of the bombs separate from Omagh, Mr McAuley replied no.
The forensic scientist said he based his opinion on the similarity of the timer power units, soldering techniques and the uniformity of wiring to the bomb terminals.
It is expected the committal hearing will last until Thursday.
