Senior Scottish judge to chair Omagh bomb inquiry

The Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris MP has appointed The Rt Hon Lord Turnbull as the Chair of the Omagh Bombing Inquiry.

The British Government have said the inquiry will investigate whether security forces could have prevented the 1998 attack.

The inquiry will also look at the handling and sharing of intelligence; the use of cell phone analysis; whether there was advance knowledge or reasonable means of knowledge of the bomb; and whether disruption operations could, or should, have been mounted, which may have helped prevent the tragedy.

Lord Turnbull has worked on a number of high profile legal cases and was a prosecutor on the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial and also worked as legal counsel on the Lockerbie bombing trial.

In 2006, Turnbull was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the Court of Session and High Court of Justiciary at the Supreme Courts of Scotland, with the judicial title, Lord Turnbull.

He was at the time Scotland’s youngest judge, at the age of forty-seven.

Lord Turnbull said, “I am honoured to be appointed to chair this important Inquiry. I am very conscious of the devastation brought to the lives of so many by the atrocity which took place in Omagh in August 1998. I understand the determination of those who lost family and loved ones, and of those who were themselves injured, or whose family members were injured, to learn whether the attack could have been prevented.

“As soon as is practicable I shall be seeking views from those affected about the Inquiry. Once the Inquiry’s terms of reference are finalised I shall conduct an independent and robust Inquiry in order to establish the truth.”