Pub bombs group loses legal aid bid

BIRMINGHAM families battling for justice for the victims of the 1974 pub bombs have been refused legal aid again.

It means the Justice4the21 campaign group will have to raise another huge sum to pay for legal representation if coroner Sir Peter Thornton QC is allowed to take his fight to exclude the identities of the suspects to the Court of Appeal.

Campaign spokeswoman Julie Hambleton said: “It is outrageous, we are so sick of this. But there will be no giving up because our support from ordinary people is growing beyond our wildest dreams.”

Mr Thornton is seeking permission to appeal a decision of the High Court which asked him to reconsider his decision to exclude the perpetrator issue from the scope of the inquiry.

But the coroner himself has said he believes the families should get public funding to be represented at the Court of Appeal.

A spokesman for KRW Law, which represents the families, said: “The coroner has endorsed the need for our clients to receive public funding to be represented in the Court of Appeal because of the importance of the matters to be argued if permission is granted.”

But he added there will be no legal aid because none of the families is deemed to be financially eli- gible. “They are all working people who pay council tax, National Insurance, Income Tax... which funds the legal team of the coroner and the West Midlands Police and others,” said the spokesman.

He added: “Once again our clients may have to resort to the generosity of the public.

“This state of affairs is unsatisfactory for those whose loved ones were the victims.

“The public funding regime for complex inquests – and legal proceedings arising from them – is not fit for purpose, it is iniquitous.

“But that is easy to say, and far more difficult to rectify whilst the anguish of our clients continues.”