Botched IRA warning led to pub bomb deaths
A botched IRA warning call led to the deaths of 21 people unlawfully killed in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, an inquest jury has found.
Two massive detonations caused what one witness described as “pure carnage”, ripping apart the packed Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town pubs on the night of 21 November, killing 21 people and injuring 220 more.
The 11-member panel, which sat for almost six weeks and deliberated for almost five hours, unanimously concluded an inadequate warning call by the Provisional IRA, which carried out the attacks, cost the stretched police vital minutes.
The six female and five male jurors also determined the victims were unlawfully killed.
They also found there was “not sufficient evidence” of any failings, errors or omissions by West Midlands Police’s response to the bomb warning call, or in regards to two alleged tip-offs to the force, giving advanced warning of the blasts.
Qualifying the jury findings in relation to the police’s response, the panel’s foreman told the court: “The decision was based on the balance of the evidence provided.”
The families of those killed have called on the police to “redouble” efforts to bring those responsible to justice.
The jury found a coded telephone warning by the IRA to the Birmingham Post and Mail at 8:11pm was wholly inadequate.
The call, answered by newspaper telephonist Ian Cropper, gave the bomb locations as the landmark Rotunda building and the nearby tax office in New Street, making no mention of pubs.
Police first on the scene searched the Rotunda office block, wrongly believing one of the bombs was inside.
In evidence, it emerged frontline officers had no standardised training or procedures to work from when dealing with bomb warnings.
One detective told the inquest that bomb threats were dealt with “lightheartedly”.
“Commuters are regularly subjected to late, cancelled and overcrowded trains at an extremely high financial and personal cost”