There were “significant failings” in the use of a police computer database by the RUC during its investigation into the Omagh bombing in 1998, a senior detective has said.
Detective Chief Inspector Neil McGuinness told the Omagh Bombing Inquiry these included not enough staff being trained to use the Holmes One system.
Evidence at the inquiry
The PSNI officer was giving evidence in the public inquiry into the dissident republican car bombing in Omagh on August 15 1998 which killed 29 people, including a woman who was pregnant with twins, in the worst single atrocity in the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
The inquiry, chaired by Lord Turnbull, is holding evidential hearings in Belfast.
The latest phase of hearings, which will last for several weeks, is concentrating on the period before and after the bombing and will examine how it was carried out and who was responsible.
Holmes One system failings
The inquiry was set up by the previous government to examine whether the explosion could have been prevented by UK authorities.
Mr McGuinness told the hearing on Tuesday that the Holmes (Home Office Large Major Enquiry System) One computer database had been introduced in Northern Ireland by the RUC in the 1980s to help manage large and complex investigations.
Inquiry barrister John Rafferty asked him about the use of the database at the time of the bombing of Omagh.
The barrister asked if the number of staff trained in the system had been “not adequate to deal with the number of investigations which used Holmes One at that time”.
Mr McGuinness said: “Yes, that’s our position that the number of trained staff and the training was insufficient.”
Staffing and training issues
The detective said there had been one Holmes liaison officer within the RUC to oversee training and resource of the database.
He said: “Essentially, what that meant was that that person would have been the contact the whole year round, which is not acceptable.”
Mr Rafferty asked if there had been a period of time after November 1997 when that post was not filled.
Mr McGuinness said: “Yes, that’s correct. The officer performing that role had moved on, and it was allowed to just remain vacant.”
The detective said he was not sure how long the position had remained vacant.
Mr Rafferty asked if the PSNI accepted there were “significant failings in respect of the operation of Holmes One during the Omagh Bombing investigation”.
Mr McGuinness responded: “Yes, we do.”
The detective said it was reasonable to infer the same failings had featured in other investigations prior to Omagh.
Mr Rafferty asked: “A particular problem was in relation to not having enough Holmes trained staff?”
Mr McGuinness said: “Yes, that’s right.”
Scale of the investigation
The detective told the inquiry that the scale of the investigation had been unprecedented and it had been a “massive Holmes account”.
He said: “Everything about this incident and this investigation and inquiry was almost unprecedented with its scale and size.”
Mr McGuinness said that while there may have been a “lack of experience and training” in the Holmes system, some of the RUC’s most experienced detectives were involved in the Omagh investigation.
He added: “The one observation that I would make is that a lot of their experience in 1998 would have been for what we refer to as the main body of the Troubles and the Provisional IRA, and sort of that mainstream republicanism and terrorism that they had been dealing with for 30 years.
“This period saw the introduction of new players, essentially the dissident republican organisations.”
Mr McGuinness added: “So the RUC at the time, I have no doubt at all, as an experienced investigator, would have had some difficulty in translating the experience of the fight against terrorism that they had traditionally been used to and built up a lot of experience in, but there were certainly new and different nuances and dimensions to this investigation.
“Coupled with that, the sheer scale and loss of life and the tragedy involved in the Omagh bombing.
“They were very experienced, but there was some new ground really to be trodden here by the investigators.”
