Orde: We could not have stopped Omagh

Outgoing Northern Ireland police chief Sir Hugh Orde last night insisted he was convinced nothing could have been done to prevent the Omagh bomb.

Giving evidence to a Commons committee he told MPs it would have been impossible to have stopped the 1998 blast that killed 29 people and unborn twins.

Sir Hugh has read the uncensored report by Sir Peter Gibson on claims GCHQ was monitoring calls made by the bombers in the run-up to the atrocity but “was clear” that the only blame should be laid at the door of the terrorist attackers.

“I have read the full report and I am at one with him, that you could not have prevented that atrocity taking place,” he told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee. The blame lies fairly and squarely with the Real IRA. I am absolutely clear in my mind, I have never seen anything that tells me that bomb could have been stopped.”

Early intelligence briefings came up with eight names and four of those men — Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly — were found liable for the bombing in a civil action earlier this year.

Sir Hugh was giving evidence to the committee for the final time before stepping down as PSNI chief constable in September. He robustly defended his decision to axe the full-time reserves despite the bouts of dissident activity.

Sir Hugh said removing the officers was in line with the Patten reforms of policing and insisted leaving the decision to his successor would have been “the coward's way out”.

“I had 1,000 reserve officers when I started and we are down to the last few and for some reason the (Police) Federation has now got quite excited about it.

“We have assessed the threat and we are confident we can deliver on the threat without 148 people in the reserve deployed on security.”

Sir Patrick Cormack, committee chairman, the SDLP's Alasdair McDonnell and the DUP's David Simpson all paid tribute to Sir Hugh for transforming policing in the province over the last seven years.

* Source: Belfast Telegraph.