By Brendan Anderson

THE trial has begun of an Armagh man charged with killing the 29 people, including a woman expecting twins, who died in the Omagh bomb.

As well as 29 murder charges, Sean Hoey, of Jonesborough, south Armagh, faces another 29 charges of involvement in other bombings and conspiracies.

Responsibility for the botched bombing of the Co. Tyrone town center in August 1998 was admitted by the dissident Republican group, the Real IRA.

The trial of 37-year-old Hoey, who denies the charges, is expected to last 14 weeks. It is being relayed by video link from Belfast Crown Court to Omagh College where relatives of the victims may witness proceedings without having to make the 145-mile round trip.

Outlining the prosecution case Monday, Crown lawyer Gordon Kerr said the court would hear of forensic evidence concerning the construction of car bombs and about claims of responsibility involving a recognized dissident code word. He said fiber evidence would be linked to timer power units (bomb parts) indicating the bombs were made by the same person.

Kerr listed other attacks in which Hoey is accused of involvement, and where similar power units had been used. These included mortar attacks on military bases at Crossmaglen and Forkhill and car bombs at Newry, Lisburn and Armagh.

The lawyer said the Omagh explosion had “devastating effects,” and even those who escaped physical harm “suffered severe and lasting trauma.”

Kerr said the three telephoned warnings received before the bomb exploded were “not only wrong but were meaningless.” He said the prosecution would argue the warnings made it “inevitable that any evacuation would be to the very area of the parked car bomb.”

“If the bombers had genuinely wished to avoid deaths and injury, they could easily have given a description of the vehicle and an accurate description of its location, as they had done in previous bombings” he said.