£2.5m fees for Omagh defence team

Twenty-nine people were killed in the Omagh bombing in August 1998

Almost £2.5m has so far been paid to the defence team which represented Sean Hoey in last year's Omagh bomb trial.

Mr Hoey was cleared of 58 charges, including the murders of 29 people in the Real IRA atrocity in August 1998.

The Legal Services Commission said the figure included fees to legal representatives and a range of other expenses, such as expert witnesses.

Last week, it emerged that prosecution barristers were paid almost £1.2m in fees during the trial.

Details of the interim payments were obtained by the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.

The defence team's final bill is expected to be even higher.

Twenty-nine people and unborn twins were murdered in the attack.

The trial, which lasted 56 days and ended in December 2007, was one of three high profile failures in a prosecution case, along with the Robert McCartney murder trial and the Northern Bank robbery.