Twenty years ago Warrington was rocked by an IRA bomb attack which killed two children in the town. March 20 marks 20 years since the 1993 bombings. Over the next week, we will be looking at what happened then through the eyes of some of the key people involved.

THE unprecedented victory by 12 relatives of victims of the 1998 Omagh bombing could prompt a successful legal action against the backers of the IRA by victims’ families including Colin and Wendy Parry.

The couple’s son Tim Parry, aged 12, and three-year-old Johnathan Ball, were killed in the March 20, 1993 bombing of Warrington.

A multibillion-pound class action has already been lodged in the name of 143 families over the IRA bombings between 1983 and 1997, including the Bridge Street attack and the Enniskillen, Manchester and Canary Wharf atrocities.

Jason McCue, a Warrington-based solicitor who acted for the Omagh families, said that the writ had been lodged in the United States against Colonel Gaddafi and Libya over the arming of the IRA.

He said: “There are already other lawsuits pending over terrorism, which have been watching the outcome of this case.

“Now this ruling has shown that people can make terrorists pay for their actions.”

Monday’s case was the first successful legal action of its kind.

Six families who lost relatives in the Omagh bombing sought damages in the civil courts from the men they believed were responsible for the atrocity after criminal prosecutions had been thrown out.

Because individuals had been identified, lawyers were able to bring a civil action in what is thought to be the first successful lawsuit against alleged members of a terrorist organisation.

It is easier to gain a conviction in civil courts, where the burden of proof carries less weight and a judge can accept second-hand evidence.

Mr Justice Morgan ruled that Michael McKevitt, the Real IRA founder and leader who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in the Republic of Ireland for directing terrorism, was liable for the Omagh bombing, along with Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly.

Elsewhere, in other terrorist-related actions, victims’ families have to pursue the funders of the terrorist organisations.

Lord Brennan, QC, a leading personal injuries barrister and Labour peer, described the court case as an “unprecedented civil action” in which “for the first time, private citizens are confronting terrorists in our courts”.

The multibillion-pound class action pending against Libya by the US courts includes victims and relatives of IRA bombings between 1983 and 1997.

The suit claims that Colonel Gaddafi’s regime helped the IRA by supplying it with money, Semtex and other weapons.

Mr McCue said: “Ordinary individuals, victims, have pursued justice and got a result against the odds and got damning judgments and the highest-ever damages in Northern Ireland, which tells terrorists that they can’t get away with it.”