BIRMINGHAM PUB BOMB MUM TO SUE
Alleged conspirator and police chief face action over Maxine’s 1974 death
THE family of a reveller killed in the IRA Birmingham pub bomb blasts are suing an alleged conspirator and a police chief.
Maxine Hambleton, 18, died in the 1974 atrocity and her mum Margaret Smith has issued a writ for damages against Michael Patrick Reilly.
She is also suing the chief constable of West Midlands Police Sir David Thompson, claiming the investigation was conducted negligently.
The Hambleton family are applying for legal aid in Northern Ireland to help fund the action, but may also have to turn to donations.
Maxine’s sister Julie Hambleton said: “This is the only step that is left for families like ours.
“Successive British governments have refused to help aid families in gaining justice any other way. The threshold for a civil case is not as high as a criminal case.”
The move is the latest twist in the long-running campaign for victims’ justice following the city centre blasts.
Two bombs ripped apart the Tavern in the Town and Mulberry Bush pubs, killing 21 people and injuring more than 200.
A third device failed to go off and was recovered, but later lost, by West Midlands Police.
Mr Reilly, now in his 60s and living in Belfast, was arrested in November 2020 under the Terrorism Act.
He was questioned by police in connection with the bombings and unconditionally released following a search of his house. Mr Reilly has always denied any knowledge of, or involvement in, the attacks.
His lawyer Padraig O’Muirig said: “The legal proceedings issued will be strenuously defended.
“My client has never been convicted of any offence in relation to the 1974 pub bombings.”
Nobody has ever been brought to justice for the murderous attacks, which came at the height of an IRA campaign on mainland Britain.
The Birmingham Six were wrongly convicted in 1975 but freed in 1991 by Court of Appeal after one of Britain’s gravest miscarriages of justice. The men, Northern Irish-born but living in the city at the time of the blast, were later awarded huge compensation packages.
They included Patrick Hill and Hugh Callaghan.
Mrs Smith’s legal move follows a successful 2009 civil action by the families of victims of the 1998 Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland that left 29 people dead and 220 injured.
The writ has been issued now as the proposed new Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill would ban new civil claims relating to the period.