Journalist faces court wait on ‘bomber confession’
A JOURNALIST who investigated the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings faces a wait to see if a court orders him to disclose material which police say contains a confession from a bomber to the murders of the 21 victims.
Chris Mullin, 74, insisted it was a “fundamental ethical obligation” of a reporter to protect the identities of their sources.
He is challenging an application by West Midlands Police to require him to disclose source material dating back to his investigation in 1985 and 1986. He said that if the application were to succeed it would “set a precedent which could be used to undermine the freedom of journalists to investigate alleged miscarriages of justice and other matters in cases involving terrorism”.
In his book Error Of Judgement, and a series of documentaries, Mr Mullin helped expose one of the worst miscarriages of justice, leading to the release of the Birmingham Six after their convictions were quashed in 1991. West Midlands Police is using the Terrorism Act to bring the production order application and a hearing into the matter took place at the Old Bailey.
In his witness statement, Mr Mullin said he was never under the illusion that he could bring the perpetrators to justice.
“My intention was to rescue the six men who I believed to be innocent and who had by this time been in prison for 12 years and who had no prospect of release.
“It was also obvious from the outset that none of those involved in the bombings would talk to me if they thought I was merely collecting evidence on behalf of the police – although it must be said that, at the time, the West Midlands Police were entirely uninterested in pursuing any such line of enquiry,” he said.
Mr Mullin said that to eliminate any concerns it was necessary to assure everyone he would not do anything which might identify confidential sources.
James Lewis QC, representing West Midlands Police, told the Old Bailey that Mr Mullin refuses to identify a man referred to in court as AB who made what was “in short it is a full confession to the murders.” Mr Lewis said the confession is a “paradigm example of something that is likely to be of substantial value to the investigation”.
The Recorder of London Judge Mark Lucraft will deliver his ruling on a future date.