Failure to probe corruption evidence, Omagh inquiry told

Updated / Friday, 13 Nov 2026 14:43

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A former senior police officer has said an inquiry into the Omagh bombing failed to investigate evidence of corruption among senior gardaí at the time.

Speaking during the Omagh Bombing inquiry, Norman Baxter said he was briefed about allegations made by a serving garda at the time, John White, concerning garda knowledge of dissident republican activities before the Omagh bombing.

He said he regarded those allegations as "sufficiently serious to warrant further investigation".

Twenty-nine people died, including a woman pregnant with twins, when the dissident republican car bomb exploded in the Co Tyrone town in August 1998.

Mr Baxter said he was "deeply troubled" about the Police Ombudsman's office disclosing information concerning Mr White’s allegations to the Irish Government.

Mr Baxter said he stands by his words that if those allegations were correct, he was concerned that senior garda officers implicated would have an opportunity to deflect the allegations, cause evidence to disappear or agree an alternative version of events with other witnesses.

He said it compromised the investigation from the very outset.

Mr Baxter said Mr White was vulnerable as he was a serving garda at the time and that it is on record the processes that he went through in prosecution and not having sight of all the evidence.

"On a personal level, he went through very difficult times because of garda senior management trying to discredit him."

He said there was no evidence and that Mr White was not convicted of anything but "they put huge effort into discrediting him".

White 'deliberately' sent to a 'secure location'

"I had him for three days in a secure location in the mainland and I did that deliberately to get him away," he said, adding that the chief constable was not informed of this.

"I did not want for him to be arrested the day before I got him," he said.

"I was uncertain as to the reliability of the people I worked with in telling the guards that this interview was imminent. I wanted that on record."

He said none of his management knew where Mr White was at the time.

He said Mr White was interviewed and in his statement he provided "very detailed evidence, he identified serious garda corruption".

"He identified corruption involving drugs, corruption involving collusion with criminality, of senior officers.

"John White was arrested but not one of those officers ever was investigated, not one of them," he said, adding that Mr White openly admitted that he was involved in some criminality.

"A person involved in criminality can still be a witness against other criminals," he added.

He said the Department of Justice set up a three-man inquiry, "but they were misled by the garda" and that there "was no internal investigation into the garda and these senior officers".

"Including someone who was alleged to have said let this bomb go," he added.

He said the inquiry will determine whether he is right or not.

Mr Baxter said Mr White was persecuted in a prosecutorial way to discredit him and to discredit Mr Baxter’s investigation into their activities.

"To this day, the Irish Government has not addressed John White’s key allegations in that there was deep corruption within the garda and collusion with terrorism," he said.

"That is my belief and I think the evidence shows that," he added.