Police chief defends Omagh action

Flanagan rejected claims that the Omagh inquiry was "seriously flawed"

OMAGH, Northern Ireland -- Northern Ireland's police chief has defended the actions of his force after it was warned of a terror attack on the day of the 1998 Omagh bombing.

Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan also said on Thursday allegations his officers had been uncooperative towards an ombudsman's inquiry into the investigation were untrue.

In a robust defence of his force, Flanagan denied Special Branch tried to conceal from the inquiry team the existence of an internal review that raised questions about the handling of the Omagh investigation.

MORE STORIES Omagh bomb case: Man guilty    RESOURCES In-Depth: Conflict and Hope in Northern Ireland

Flanagan completely rejected Nuala O'Loan's accusation that his and Assistant Chief Constable Crime Raymond White's judgment during the investigation was "seriously flawed" and had "seriously reduced" the chances of catching the bombers.

He insisted: "The Omagh investigation has been driven forward with energy, professionalism and determination.

"The scale of the investigation -- all sense of which is absent from the ombudsman's statement -- has been accompanied by the use of a whole range of techniques and procedures which represents firsts in Northern Ireland policing.

"These include the use of cutting-edge technology in areas such as DNA testing and phone call analysis; the employment for the first time in Northern Ireland of the Metropolitan Police special explosives search team; and the use for the first time of a formal review process."

After meeting some of the relatives of the 29 people killed in the Real IRA attack, Flanagan said: "There were errors made but thankfully they're not errors that diminished our chance of success. There's still a real chance of success (of catching the bombers)."

Following the chief constable's remarks, O'Loan strongly defended her report while acknowledging there were clear disagreements between her findings and the information presented on Thursday by the chief constable.

She said: "I acknowledged in my report and I do so again that the bombing was a massive atrocity and the responsibility of the RUC/PSNI was awesome.

"In so many ways they deserve credit for much of what they have done.

"It would not have been right of me to minimise or be deflected from making criticism of the failures and efficiencies which we find over the past months, many of which were clearly identified by their own internal review."

But her findings had angered victims' relatives who had pinned their hopes for securing convictions on the police investigation.

Colm Murphy faces a life sentence after being found guilty of conspiracy in connection with the Omagh bombing

Michael Gallagher, who lost his son in the bombing, said he was not satisfied with what he had heard from Flanagan.

"I felt very disappointed. I thought the Chief Constable would have offered more than he did. I thought that he would go some way to meeting Nuala O'Loan.

"It appears that what he is saying is that 'we have done nothing wrong apart from a few administrative errors' -- and that is hard to accept."

Lawrence Rush, who lost his wife in the Omagh bombing, was also critical.

"I thought there was a bit of despondency in the room, and to me, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, good PR man that he is, has lost this battle," he said.

"It is time the police force, with all their resources and all their experience after 30 years of murder, finally came to their senses and put together a police force which is effective."

Several of the Omagh families will be travelling to Dublin on Friday to see Colm Murphy sentenced following his conviction earlier this week of conspiracy in the Omagh bombing.