This Day In History

October 19: Guildford Four Released

The Guildford Four were charged with direct involvement with IRA attacks in the mid 1970s. They were: Paul Michael Hill, aged 21 at the time of trial, convicted of the Guildford pub bombings, the Kings Arms, Woolwich bombing and, separately, the murder of British soldier Brian Shaw, confessed to during the same questioning. Gerard "Gerry" Conlon, 21, convicted of the Guildford bombings. Patrick "Paddy" Armstrong, 25, convicted of the one Woolwich and two Guildford bombings. Carole Richardson, 18, convicted of the Guildford bombings.

After their arrests, all four defendants confessed to the bombing. These statements were later retracted, but nonetheless formed the basis of the case against them. They would later be explained as the result of coercion by the police ranging from intimidation to torture, including threats against family members, as well as the effects of drug withdrawal.

They were convicted in October 1975 for murder and other charges and sentenced to life imprisonment, as mandatory for adults convicted of murder. Richardson, a minor at the time of the bombings, received an indeterminate At Her Majesty's Pleasure sentence for murder but a life one for conspiracy. Mr Justice Donaldson, who also presided over the Maguire Seven trial, expressed regret that the Four had not been charged with treason, which then still had a mandatory death penalty. At the time, the normal practice was for judges to be consulted by the Home Secretary when considering release from a life sentence rather than giving a tariff at trial, but the judge, believing he might be dead by the time they were released, recommended 30 years for Conlon, 35 for Armstrong and until "great age" for Hill.

There was never any evidence that any of "The Four" had been involved with the Provisional IRA. Furthermore, they did not fit the bill in terms of lifestyle. Paddy Armstrong and Carole Richardson, an Englishwoman, lived in a squat, and were involved with drugs and petty crime. Paul Michael Hill was born and raised in Belfast in a mixed-religion marriage, although as a boy, like most Catholics youths in his area, he participated in the widespread rioting at the time. On the night of the attacks, Richardson was in London seeing the band Jack the Lad at the then South Bank Polytechnic. She was unable to recall this upon being arrested, but witnesses came forward. However, the prosecution were able to put together a version of events whereby she left Guildford at high speed by car. Hill and Armstrong also presented alibis, Hill's placing him at Southampton. A witness named Charles Burke placed Conlon at a London hostel, but his evidence was not presented at trial.

In 1989, a detective looking at the case found typed notes from Patrick Armstrong's police interviews, which had been heavily edited. Deletions and additions had been made, and the notes had been rearranged. These notes, and their amendments, were consistent with hand-written and typed notes presented at the trial, which suggested that the hand-written notes were made after the interviews had been conducted. The implication of this was that the police had manipulated the notes, to fit with the case they wanted to present. An appeal was granted on the basis of this new evidence. Lord Gifford QC represented Paul Hill and others were represented by noted human rights solicitor, Gareth Peirce. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lane, said that the police had either: "completely fabricated the typed notes, amending them to make them look more effective, and then creating hand-written notes to give the appearance of contemporaneous notes"; or "started off with contemporaneous notes, typed them up to make them more legible, amended them to make them read better, and then converted them back to hand-written notes." Either way, the police had lied, and the conclusion was if they had lied about this, the entire evidence was misleading, and the Four were released, after having their convictions reversed. Paul Hill had also been convicted of the murder of a British soldier, Brian Shaw, based on his confession while in the custody of Surrey Police, was released on bail, pending his appeal against this conviction. In 1994, the Court of Appeal in Belfast quashed Hill's conviction for Brian Shaw's murder.