Families of the 29 victims of the Omagh bombing have launched a bitter attack on the Police Service of Northern Ireland following the acquittal of the only man to be tried for murder over the 1998 Real IRA attack.
After a nine-year investigation which cost £16million, Sean Hoey, a 38-year-old electrician, was cleared on 56 counts relating to the Omagh bombing and several other attacks on police and military installations.
The trial judge, Mr Justice Weir, accused the police of having a "slapdash approach" to evidence-gathering, which meant DNA evidence presented at the trial could not be relied upon.
He also ordered an investigation into the "reprehensible" conduct of two police officers who were accused of altering their statements to make evidence against Mr Hoey appear stronger.
Victor Barker, whose 12-year-old son James died in the Omagh attack, blamed Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the former chief constable of the then Royal Ulster Constabulary, for the police's failure to convict anyone of direct involvement in the worst atrocity in the history of the troubles in Northern Ireland.
"It is the appalling inefficiency of Sir Ronnie Flanagan that has meant Chief Superintendent (Norman) Baxter (the officer leading the inquiry) has not been able to secure a conviction," he said.
He added that the initial investigation by Sir Ronnie had been deeply flawed, and, referring to Sir Ronnie's comments in 2001 that he would commit suicide in public if he was proven to have failed in his duty, Mr Barker went on: "He said he would fall on his sword if anything was wrong with this investigation - I will give him the sword."
Michael Gallagher, whose son, Aidan, 21, was killed in the bombing, said: "The Criminal Justice System has failed the Omagh victims.
"Those of us in court today heard a catalogue of events that really beggars belief."
He said both the British and Irish Governments must now set up a full cross-border inquiry into the Omagh bombing.
"They can no longer refuse to give families such an inquiry. This case has been a disgrace by any standards."
Stanley McCombe, whose wife, Ann, 48, was another of the victims, said: "I'm flabbergasted, dumbfounded. I do not know what to think. All the resources over the last nine and a half years have not got us anywhere."
Several of the families are involved in an ongoing civil action against those they believe to have been responsible for the Omagh bombing, which may be concluded next year.
Mr Hoey, from Jonesborough, South Armagh, waved to relatives as they applauded his acquittal at Belfast Crown Court.
Sitting behind Mr Hoey in the public gallery was his uncle, Colm Murphy,52, who was found guilty by the Dublin special criminal court of conspiracy to cause the Omagh bombing in January 2002.
Two years later Mr Murphy's conviction was overturned on appeal when it was found that the court of trial had failed to give proper regard to altered garda interview notes and that there had been "an invasion of the presumption of innocence" in the original judgment.
Mr Murphy, who faces a retrial, was one of the five men named in the Omagh families' civil case.
Mr Hoey's mother Rita said outside court: "I want the world to know that my son is innocent. This is not a failure to bring those responsible to justice - Sean is innocent."
Mr Justice Weir, who sat without a jury during the 56-day hearing which ended in January, has taken almost a year to deliver his verdict on the biggest mass murder trial in British legal history.
He said it was "extraordinary" that the prosecution had relied upon DNA evidence which had been gathered in a "slapdash" way, meaning the results of some DNA tests were, by the admission of a key prosecution witness, "valueless".
The police had also demonstrated a "cavalier disregard" for the integrity of exhibits, which had been improperly stored in open bags, with loose labels, in a room which was a "complete mess", causing a risk of contamination.
Two police officers who gave evidence at the trial were accused by the judge of "a deliberate and calculated deception" after they claimed they had been wearing protective clothing when gathering evidence at a bomb scene when photographs showed they were not.
Detective Sergeant Fiona Cooper and Dt Sgt Philip Marshall are currently the subject of an inquiry by the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland after it emerged that their original statements had been altered.
It was on August 15, 1998 that a 500lb car bomb exploded in a busy shopping street in Omagh, half an hour after three "meaningless" bomb warnings had been given to Ulster Television and the Samaritans.
The coded warnings gave the wrong location for the bomb, meaning police funnelled the public towards the bomb rather than away from it.
As a result 29 people died, including a mother pregnant with twins, and 220 were injured.
Mr Justice Weir said: "I am acutely aware that the stricken people of Omagh and every other right-thinking member of the Northern Ireland community would very much wish to see whoever was responsible for the outrageous offence of August 1998...convicted and punished for their crimes according to law."
But he also said any criminal conviction required proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt, and "the evidence against the accused in this case did not reach that immutable standard".
