Constable describes Omagh scene

Policeman described scene of devastation

Omagh inquest: Day 4

A police constable has told the inquest into the deaths of 29 people in the Omagh bombing about the horrific scene he found after the blast.

Constable Gary McClatchey had graduated from the Royal Ulster Constabulary training college 12 weeks before he attended the scene of the bombing in the centre of the County Tyrone town on 15 August 1998.

He told the inquest, which is sitting in Omagh leisure centre, that he had been evacuating people from shops and the High Street area and had been ordered to set up a cordon in a side street when the bomb exploded.

Constable McClatchey said that as soon as the bomb went off, he realised the blast had come from the direction to which he had directed people during the operation to evacuate the town centre.

The police operation to deal with the security alert in Omagh was misled by confusing telephone warnings from the dissident republicans who carried out the attack about the position of the device which contained 500lbs of explosives.

Constable McClatchey said that he had shouted to people in Waterson's shop to clear the town centre.

Casualties

He told the inquest that when a man and a woman asked him where they should go, he pointed towards Market Street, where the bomb exploded some 20 minutes later.

He said: "I heard a loud dull thud, shop shutters rattled and glass shattered.

Amateur video: Some relatives left during screening

"I knew immediately it was Market Street where I had ushered people to go. I could see a plume of smoke."

He ran to the scene, he said, adding: "Men and women were crying, soaked in blood, calling out to me."

He saw the body of a male lying motionless in the street, and an engine block on fire with a young girl with long hair trapped under it.

After several attempts, police officers were able to lift the wreckage and pull the girl free. He said she had been identified as Pauline Green - who was not one of the 29 people who died.

Constable McClatchey told the inquest how he helped dig another young woman out of the rubble. The woman, later identified as Deborah Ann Cartwright, who was fatally injured, had a head injury and was unconscious.

The constable spoke of seeing bodies with horrific injuries, and some in a crater full of water.

Referring to his short time out of training, the coroner John Leckey said to the constable: "It was a baptism with a vengeance".

Constable McClatchey replied: "Yes."

Concern over line of inquiry

Earlier some of the families of victims said they "would deplore" any attempt to turn the inquest following the massacre into a witch hunt of police officers who dealt with events that day.

The coroner heard that relatives of four of those who died in the bombing objected to the approach taken by some lawyers during questioning of police officers in the witness box.

Kenneth Duncan, representing the families of Debra Ann Cartwright, Bryan and Fred White, and Lorraine Wilson, said the misgivings expressed last week were also shared by his clients.

Mr Leckey is to consider the scope of the inquest next Monday as part of an application lodged by a lawyer for RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan, who has already put on record his unease about the line of questioning taken by some lawyers.

A legal team from the Northern Ireland Police Federation, the union which represents rank and file police officers, arrived at the hearing on Monday.

A barrister told Mr Leckey he was there to advise officers on how they presented themselves in the witness box and to deal with any issue which may arise while they were giving evidence.

He added: "The officers are determined and anxious to give full and complete evidence to this inquest. There is no suggestion that they want to narrow the parameters of the inquest."