PSNI engage in trial by media against Sean Hoey

national | crime and justice | news report Friday May 06, 2005 06:20 by Barry

Farcical trial by television and media witch hunt just another British stunt .

The banner headlines greeting the highly publicised and clearly leaked intent of the PSNI and the British DPP to charge South Armagh father of two Sean Hoey with 29 counts of murder relating to the 1998 bombing of Omagh have been denounced by his solicitor as a "media stunt" .

More worryingly this is not the first such stunt attempting to portray Sean Hoey in the public mind as guilty of the heinous crime of mass murder .


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Sean Hoeys solicitor Peter Corrigan from the reputable Madden and Finucane firm now says he is "profoundly disturbed" at the conveniently timed media leaks which he believes are deliberately intended to disrupt Sean Hoeys case for bail which is "strong and well prepared" .

Despite the message coming from the PSNI that they have got the guilty man , there is a vital ingredient missing from both their case and docile media reporting .They havent as yet produced any actual evidence that Sean Hoey has even been to Omagh , planted a bomb or killed anyone .

On Monday Sept 2nd September 2003 around 200 British soldiers (including SAS) and heavily armed PSNI officers , supported by helicopter gunships and a fleet of armoured vehicles surrounded the isolated home of young South Armagh man Sean Hoey . Both Sean and his young wife were arrested in this massive dawn raid and taken away in handcuffs by heavily armed troops. Seans wife was held in the notorious Gough barracks while Sean was taken to Antrim . Their 2 young kids were understandably left terrified .

On a hillside overlooking the scene of the arrest the national and British press were assembled as a result of a PSNI tip off . With tv cameras and microphones in abundance the press announced a " huge breakthrough" in the Omagh bombing case and that a man was finally due to be charged . The size of the huge troop concentration was pointed to as "proof" there was a serious case against the man and that finally someone was being held to account .

What they didnt point out though , and which any local could have told them , was that only a few weeks earlier the PSNI had arrested Sean from the same house with a much smaller force , considerably smaller in fact . Just a handful of cops and their routine army back up . In fact Sean had been arrested and questioned a number of times over the years but an armoured and airborne military force similar in size to the one which finally surrounded the Hussein brothers was never needed to capture him .

But little facts like these get in the way of a good story , especially when its the story the PSNI want the public to see . And with the massed media in attendance for their display of military might , see it the public duly did .

Any member of the public watching the scenes outside Jonesboro unfold and being reported by a breathless media could safely conclude Sean must be a dangerous man , why else would 100s of troops and armed police be at his door ?

Further proof of Seans guilt was his family relationship with Colm Murphy , another obviously guilty man in the Omagh case . The press stated both had regularly been seen drinking together in Dundalk . Murphy it was reported had been sentenced to 14 years in the Dublin SCC in connection with Omagh .

Colm , Seans uncle , however was recently freed on bail after the 2 special branch detectives who testified against him were proven to be serial liars who had falsified entire statements . This had actually been proven at Colm Murphys trial but he was sentenced nontheless . However both branchmen are currently charged with perjury . The Murphy trial , like Seans now , was surrounded by media hysteria and Colm was regularly confronted by hostile media reporters and hounded as an obviously guilty individual . He was even notoriously and publicly doorstepped by Panoramas John Ware on one occasion inside the grounds of Dundalk Garda barracks . To the public at large he was clearly guilty .

Only problem is he wasnt guilty , just being used as a political scapegoat in a state and media witchunt against republican suspects .

Sean Hoey was initially charged with a large number number of offences after his highly public arrest although none actually related to Omagh specifically . Over a year later Seans legal team was still trying to get access to actual evidence in order to have it independently examined . This was refused however even the judge at that time voiced doubts , although he still refused bail .

Now in a carefully timed media leak the PSNI has let it be known they now intend to charge Sean Hoey directly with 29 murders in Omagh .

With the press and public perception clearly being manipulated yet again in Seans case his family could be forgiven for saying "we've been here before " . Unfortunately however the mainstream media arent saying this to themselves or anyone else, despite clearly being led down the path by police leaks and spin in the past with Omagh . Just like they were led down the path in Birmingham and Guildford too .

Seans solicitor has pointed out the sinister use of these leaks to the media as a cynical attempt by the state to shore up an extremely weak case . Corrigan pointed out that neither he nor his client had received any notification of these charges by the authorities . On the very day that the media were anonymously "leaked" to Corrigan had in fact been in telephone contact with the DPP and no mention whatsoever of murder charges was made .

Peter Corrigan has today highlighted the fact that Sean had applied for bail only a few days ago . He has no prior convictions of any kind and "vehemently denies all all charges put against him." His case was strong , the PSNIs weak .

According to Corrigan "Absolutely no evidence has been brought to date against Sean Hoey in relation to the Omagh bombing . In the opinion of the defence little or no evidence has been put to our client which would give rise to a realistic prospect of conviction on the current charges .
But the fact that these latest allegations have been leaked shows that it is a media stunt ."

The recent publicity surrounding the leaked intention to possibly charge Sean at some stage in the future is " a media stunt designed to disrupt the strong and well prepared case which Mr Hoey intends to make in applying for bail " .

In recent cases the lengths to which the PSNI will go to stitch up republican suspects have successfully been exposed in a number of cases . Not only has there been the use of agent provocaters to entrap people the corruption at the heart of the "Independent" forensic laboratory and the DPP has been exposed . The release of 4 men in Tyrone , the Carroll / Brogan case in South Down and the recent release of Derryman Seamus Doherty all after years in jail and refusal of bail have shown that not only do the crown forces plant forensic evidence on suspects, but that both they and the DPP have directly interfered with the workings of the Independent forensics laboratory in order to secure convictions .

Having been exposed as engaged in this activity in a succession of relatively minor cases one can only wonder at what type of direct interference has gone on in the case of Sean Hoey where major political pressure has been evident from the British government .

Can the word of a police force which for example has admitted to Nuala O'Loan it manufactured or otherwise "recreated" no less than 357 witness statements and other pieces of evidence in the Omagh case ever be trusted ?

The cases of Colm Murphy and others since 1998 have shown to anyone with the remotest interest in such matters that once the word Omagh is mentioned a suspects rights and basic presumption of innocence fly clean out the window .

The utter lack of evidence against Sean Hoey and the deliberate use and manipulation of media spin by the PSNI to create the desired public reaction towards him makes it apparent that another witch hunt and frame up is in progress .

Since the astounding revelations of the OLoan report , the direct involvement of state agents like David Rupert and others in the bombing , the revelatons by both Kevin Fulton and Garda Sgt White that both sides of the border Special Branch and MI5 knew Omagh was to be attacked , virtually every aspect of this case stinks of state corruption and cover up . That includes the case of Colm Murphy too .

Sean Hoeys case now seems certain to follow a similar corrupt path and its quite possible he may never see the light of day again . If charged with 29 murders his no -jury Diplock trial will be one of the biggest mass murders ever tried in a British court and a certain media circus . He simply wont stand a chance .

While the self righteous and smug can be happy that someone gets sent down , to the ordinary nationalist youth on the ground in S Armagh and elsewhere it will be seen for what it is . British justice , which never seems to change .

All I can say to Indymedia readers is dont believe the hype , dont believe the spin and dont get sucked in to the inevitable circus of righteous indignation against Sean Hoey . People have been here many times before and the results have always been the same .Omagh was one of the most horrific acts ever visited upon innocent civilians . So were the Birmingham and Guildford bombings . But witchunts and stitch ups arent justice , and injustice only breeds more resistance .

Sean Hoey is innocent .