A police officer has told the inquiry into the Omagh bombing how “the spirit of the people that passed, or angels” gave him the words to break the news to families that their loved ones were believed to be among the dead.
“I did not have the authority at the time to do that,” Julian Elliot said. “I decided to take my uniform head off and put my human head on. I thought that if I was one of these poor people, I would want to know.”
In a statement read to the inquiry on Tuesday, Mr Elliot said that on the day of the bomb he was a sergeant in Omagh, and was put in charge of setting up the incident centre at Omagh Leisure Centre where people came for information about their missing loved ones.
A total of 31 people, including unborn twins, died and hundreds were injured when a car bomb planted by the dissident republican group the Real IRA exploded in the centre of the Co Tyrone town on August 15th, 1998.
Remembering Omagh: ‘There were stories we couldn’t write because they were too horrific’
‘I did not have the authority at the time to do that’: Omagh police officer describes informing victims’ families
Omagh victims and their families deserve better than ‘there was no alternative’ to violence
‘We used all the bags we had’: paramedic describes grim scene in wake of Omagh bombing
The former sergeant said that in the hours after the explosion, police faced a “stampede” of people whose relatives were missing and he went to the temporary mortuary at Lisanelly army barracks in search of information.
“It was a horrendous sight to see the bays lined out in the gym, right the way round it, with a body in each bay on a number.
“I ended up doing what I had to do to find out who was there ... I started to gather two or three names at a time. Two people I recognised, two of the victims were known to me, unfortunately.
“I went back down and started to say to the people in the leisure centre, ‘Keep that family. Keep that family’.”
This continued, until “we had a large number of families identified who we had to retain during the night,” Mr Elliot said.
They were asking for information, but “you can’t just run around telling someone that your family member is dead until they are identified, and you’re sure.”
He made a decision. “One by one, I took someone out of the rooms. I said, ‘I can’t officially say with the police officer’s hat on and tell you, but as a human being I can tell you. I’m doing this as a human thing.
“‘Do you want to know what I know?’, and of course they all said yes.”
Mr Elliot said he was “never trained for this, I was never given any preparation for the like of this, this was a huge, momentous and horrendous occasion.
“I don’t know if it was the spirit of the people that passed, or angels, but words came to me that I never, and don’t remember, saying, if I’m honest.
“Everyone was told a different way, and I tried to manage my words the best that I could with who I was speaking to at the time, should it be a wee old woman or a big strong man.
“I tried to tell them, I’m sorry, I believe that your relative or those close to you had been killed in the bomb.
“Some hugged me, some beat my chest, some hyperventilated and collapsed on the floor.
“It was a mixture of responses, as you can imagine, from humanity.
“This went on all night, relaying death messages and trying to be as kind with my words and gentle as I could.”
Mr Elliot told the inquiry the experience had “affected him greatly” and for many years he could not speak about it. “I tried to provide a nicer, kinder part of humanity,” he said.
On Tuesday, the inquiry heard from police witnesses who were caught up in or who responded to the bombing.
Alan Palmer, who on the day of the bombing was a constable on mobile patrol in Omagh, described how he was evacuating Market Street when the bomb exploded.
“All I can recall is a flash of light, a great suction and a great, piercing pain in my back ... shards of glass from the shop windows fell into my back.”
He said he remembered “seeing all the people who were in front of me lying dead, and those who remained alive had sustained serious injuries.”
Despite his own wounds, he tried to help a number of the injured. “There was a buggy lying close to the bomb site, but there was no child. I looked for the child, but to no avail.
“I then watched a man jump into the bomb crater, which was now filled with water, to see if there was anyone in the area, but no one was found.
“I saw a woman lying on the ground with the engine of a car on top of her. Some men were trying to get the engine off her.
“I saw a male person lying near a gutter with his head on fire.
“I was moving through this terrible scene, trying to assist where I could. I saw another young man lying on the ground with serious injuries to his face. There was nothing I could do to save his life.”
The then sergeant went to Omagh hospital in a police Land Rover with a number of other casualties. At the hospital, “a man approached my colleague and I before handing us the leg of a person wrapped in a blanket.
“We bought the leg into the accident and emergency department and handed it to a member of the medical team,” Mr Palmer said.
He said he would “never forget the horror of what I witnessed at the Omagh bomb ... to the families and survivors, I would like to reassure you that as a police officer working on that day, my only concern was to help serve and protect your loved ones,” he said.
Also appearing before the inquiry on Tuesday, the then superintendent in Omagh, James Baxter, described how, in the aftermath of the explosion, one of his many duties had been to provide welfare support to colleagues who had been traumatised by the bomb.
“I spoke to many who had been involved in evacuating people away from the area of the courthouse where the bomb call related to.
“Many of those people evacuated made their way down Market Street to the very site of the bomb blast, and some were either fatally or seriously injured.
“In my attempts to support my officers, it was apparent that many were very seriously traumatised and felt guilty and responsible for moving people into the area of the bomb.
“I referred many officers to the police occupational health unit for professional counselling,” he said.
The inquiry continues.
