Birmingham pub blasts inquest will name names

A NEW inquest into the IRA’s Birmingham pub bombings can name the suspects, judges ruled yesterday.

Families of victims were forced to raise almost £40,000 to launch a legal challenge after coroner Sir Peter Thornton said he would omit the issue of the perpetrators from the hearing.

He ruled in July last year that investigations into the identity of those responsible for the atrocities should not form part of his inquiry into the 1974 attacks, which left 21 people dead and 182 injured.

Justice4the21, the main campaign group representing many of the victims’ families, said they would ‘no longer participate’ in the hearings following the coroner’s decision.

Relatives had argued the inquests could not take place without namery’ ing suspects, while their lawyers said discussing perpetrators ‘is central to the case’.

The coroner’s decision was especially controversial as suspected members of the terror cell have been named in the past.

In the latest ruling, handed down in Birmingham, High Court judge Mrs Justice Sue Carr said: ‘We are minded to quash the coroner’s decision which excluded the perpetrator issue and remit the case so as to enable him to reconsider the decision.’

Justice4the21 spokesman Julie Hambleton thanked members of the public who helped fund the challenge after the group was denied legal aid. Speaking outside the court, she said the inquests – which were adjourned in 1975 and reopened in 2016 after a long-running campaign – would be a ‘mock- without their scope being widened. Miss Hambleton, whose sister Maxine died in the bombings, said: ‘Today’s decision is the right decision. Common sense has finally prevailed. We would like to thank Lord Justice Simon and Mrs Justice Carr for hearing our appeal and for asking the coroner to go away and ask himself another question, and that question is “Who murdered our loved ones?”

‘Twenty- one people were murdered en masse 43 years ago ... We are here, having to fight the very people who are meant to represent us – to give us truth, justice and accountability.

‘We truly hope the coroner will now reconsider ... and realise that without the perpetrators in scope, the inquest will make a mockery of our justice system. We would hope and pray that the coroner makes the common-sense decision.’

A spokesman for the inquests said: ‘The coroner ... wishes to take some time to consider carefully the judgment handed by the High Court and its impact.’

The Birmingham pub bombings were the most deadly attacks on British soil after the Second World War until the 7/7 bombings.

In 1975 a group known as a ‘Birmingham Six’ were wrongly convicted of the attack and sentenced to life in prison. Their convictions were later quashed and they were released after 17 years in 1991.

Nobody has been brought to justice for the attacks, though Granada TV’s World in Action named a number of men it alleged were the real bombers in 1990, and last year IRA bomb maker Michael Hayes said he was part of the group responsible.

He told the BBC he accepted ‘collective responsibility’ for the group’s actions.

‘Who murdered our loved ones?’