Judge questions Omagh case money

Michael McKevitt is challenging the partial funding of families' civil case

A judge has said the Lord Chancellor did not have the power to instruct Legal Aid to fund the Omagh families' civil action against Michael McKevitt.

The Real IRA leader is challenging the almost £750,000 awarded to the families of victims of the bombing.

Mr Justice Coghlin said he was "minded to grant McKevitt the relief sought", but added he could not see the families' funding being withdrawn.

He adjourned the case for two weeks to hear further submissions.

McKevitt is crrently serving a 20-year sentence in Portlaoise prison for running the Real IRA.

He and four other people in the Republic of Ireland - Seamus Daly, Seamus McKenna, Liam Campbell and Colm Murphy - are being sued by the families of the 1998 bomb atrocity in which 29 people were killed.

The government gave the Omagh relatives almost £750,000 to sue them for £14m, while McKevitt's claim for £1m in legal aid was turned down.

Justice Coghlin said he considered the decision of the Lord Chancellor to help fund the families' cases to be unlawful as he did not have the power to do so.

However, he added that "no doubt the overwhelming majority of right-thinking people in this jurisdiction... would have little difficulty in giving their approval to such a strategy".

The judge added: "I find it difficult to conceive of circumstances" in which the families funding could be withdrawn, "particularly in view of the subject matter of the proceedings".