Families boycott IRA inquest over name ban on suspects
‘They are very distressed’
The families of victims killed in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings are boycotting a fresh inquest into their deaths after a coroner banned the IRA suspects from being named.
Lawyers for relatives, who have waited more than four decades to get to the truth, yesterday accused the coroner of compounding their trauma.
They demanded a judicial review of his decision that it would be ‘unlawful’ to identify those responsible for the atrocity which claimed 21 lives.
The ruling by coroner Peter Thornton, QC, provoked outrage just days before a self- confessed IRA bomb maker Mick hayes, 69, gave a recent BBC interview in which he accepted ‘collective responsibility’ for the double bombing on November 21, 1974, but claimed he did not know who planted the devices in the two Birmingham pubs.
Mr Thornton has ruled that trying to identify the suspected bombers would be unlawful because the inquests could be seen as ‘taking on the role of a proxy trial’.
The attack was the most serious terrorist atrocity on english soil at that time. Six men were given life sentences but maintained they were forced into signing confessions by police beatings. Their convictions were overturned after they had spent 16 years behind bars.
The IRA never formally admitted the bombings, although some of the culprits are still said to be alive and living in Ireland.
In 1990 Granada Television broadcast a drama- documentary, Who Bombed Birmingham?, identifying four of the five suspects.
Yesterday just hours before the latest pre-inquest review, the Justice4the21 campaign, which represents many of the relatives, announced it ‘will no longer participate’ in the hearings.
A lawyer who represents the group of ten bereaved families said it was now a real possibility that none of the relatives would take part in the inquest which is scheduled to take place in December.
Kevin Winters, a senior partner at KRW Law firm, said: ‘This is at the heart of the families’ concerns who have been campaigning for years to try to expose the perpetrators and the agendas around this case.
‘They have fought so hard to get to this point and to find that this has been ruled out of the equation is too much for them to bear.
‘They have withdrawn, reluctantly, to concentrate on a judicial review.
‘They are very distressed. The stress and trauma that they have gone through has been compounded as a result of this decision to remove the perpetrators from the scope.’
Mr Winters added that it was imperative to hold a full and open inquiry into what occurred that night to finally be able to allay suspicions and rumours which have swirled around the notorious case.
The campaign is trying to crowdfund a judicial review of the coroner’s ruling over the names.
The relatives said ‘ it remains unclear how the information provided by Mick hayes will be investigated and by who’.
Last night a West Midlands Police spokesman said the force was waiting for the full footage of the hayes interview to be supplied so it could be reviewed.