Birmingham Six member Hill calls for new inquest

A MAN wrongly jailed over the Birmingham pub bombings has thrown his weight behind a campaign for a fresh inquest.

Twenty-one people were killed and 182 injured when the suspected IRA bombs exploded in two city centre pubs on 21 November 1974.

Paddy Hill and five others – “the Birmingham Six” – were released after 16 years when their convictions were overturned by the Court of Appeal in 1991.

He has offered lawyers acting for the victims’ families access to more than 200 boxes of previously unseen legal documents.

Mr Hill said: “I want to see an inquest too. It is the only way we are going to get to the truth of what happened.

“They have done nothing but cover up and lie, lie, lie for over 40 years.

“My solicitor has about 200 boxes of legal files. I kept copies of everything from day one. I kept all the police paperwork and the families can have whatever they want or need.”

An inquest opened days after the bombings at the Tavern in the Town and Mulberry Bush bars but closed without hearing evidence in 1975 in response to the guilty verdicts.

An application requesting a fresh probe has been lodged with Attorney General Jeremy Wright.

Bereaved relatives, who have met Home Secretary Theresa May and Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers to push for an inquest, are also seeking to challenge the Government on claims a disclosure embargo on confidential state files related to the 1974 attacks has been extended to 75 years.

Last year Mr Hill launched an online petition calling for a public inquiry into the Birmingham atrocity. “We won’t stop,” he said. Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine Hambleton was killed when a bomb ripped through The Tavern, said: “Paddy Hill has been one of our staunchest supporters.”