Running for justice
From Mr Victor Barker Sir: I read Fenton Bresler's article ('Don't privatise justice', 13 April) with some interest. I agree to some extent with what he says, but after two years of correspondence with various secretaries of state and with the Prime Minister — as well as with the office of the incompetent so-called Minister of Justice Equality and Law Reform in Dublin — it was made abundantly clear to us as the families of the Omagh victims that the likelihood of a criminal prosecution was very slight.
In such circumstances, how are we to seek justice? How do I stand up and fight for my 12-year-old son murdered among the 28 others?
This week, at 45 years of age, I ran the London Marathon for the first time, with my right leg covered in bandages from plastic surgery, and finished in 4 hours 43 minutes. For the last five miles I carried a flag: The Omagh Victims Legal Trust' — the real Irish Freedom fighters.
At least we do not plant bombs in busy shopping centres and then scurry over the border to safety — we stand up and fight for justice, and that is what we will continue to do.
Victor Barker
Father of James Barker, murdered in Omagh on 15 August 1998, vbarker@squirelaw.co.uk
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