The husband of a woman murdered in the Omagh bomb says he hopes her killer is “happy in hell”.
Stanley McComb insists the public should not feel any sympathy for former Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt, who died on Saturday after a long battle with cancer aged 71.
“It doesn’t bother me one bit that he’s died,” said Mr McComb, whose wife Ann was among 29 innocent civilians and two unborn twins killed in the 1998 slaughter.
“Michael McKevitt didn’t make my life any better, he’s dead and gone and I’ve no sympathy.
“I hope he is happy in hell, I hope he rots there. That’s a terrible thing to say about another human being, but that man is not a human being.”
Founder of the Real IRA Michael McKevitt has died
He was one of four men found liable for the Omagh bomb and had been diagnosed with terminal cancer a number of years ago
Michael McKevitt (Image: PA)
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Former Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt has died following a battle with cancer.
McKevitt, who was one of four men found liable for the Omagh bomb, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer a number of years ago.
He was released from prison in 2016 after serving a 20-year sentence for directing terrorism and membership of an illegal organisation.
The 71-year-old was married to Bernadette Sands McKevitt, a sister of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.
From Co Louth, McKevitt always denied being involved in the 1998 Omagh bombing, but in 2009 a judge ruled in a landmark civil trial that McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly were all liable for the bomb.
Police officers and firefighters inspecting the damage caused by a bomb explosion in Market Street, Omagh, in 1998 (Paul McErlane/PA)
The 1998 attack was the single biggest atrocity of the Troubles, claiming 29 lives, including a woman pregnant with twins. All of the defendants denied having any involvement in the bombing.
He had claimed he was framed and wrongly blamed for the Omagh bomb.
However, in 2009 a judge in a civil case in Belfast High Court ruled that McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly were all liable for the bombing, and ordered them to hand over £1.6m in damages.
That decision was upheld on appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.