Guildford Four: Gerry Conlon’s sister calls for files to be released

The Guildford Four

Following the release of secret case papers, the sister of Guildford Four member Gerry Conlon, Ann McKernan, has called for these papers be made public. Mr Conlon, along with three others, was jailed in a gross miscarriage of justice.  Mr Conlon’s lawyer said previously unseen files from an inquiry into the case indicate persistent attempts to try to “reconvict” the four.

A freedom of information request resulted in the first six files from Sir John May’s five-year probe into the bombings being released, but only after a redaction process that took nearly a year.  More than 700 files remain closed at the National Archives at Kew.

Gerry Conlon, Paddy Armstrong, Paul Hill and Carole Richardson (known as the Guilford Four) always protested their innocence.  They were all found guilty and received life sentences. Signed confessions were later retracted amid claims they had been obtained using violence, threats to their family and intimidation.  Their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1989 following 15 years of imprisonment.

A IRA unit , The “Balcombe Street Gang”, later claimed responsibility.  No-one else was ever charged.

Mrs McKernan said her brother always believed the files contained information that needed to be made public, “Gerry had applied to get in the queue.  They refused. They wouldn’t let him.  He knew that there was stuff in there that had to be released to the public.”

Letters, meeting minutes and memos released so far have shown some inquiry members refused to accept Mr Conlon’s assertion that he was not in the IRA. In the papers, assessor Richard Barratt suggests that Mr Conlon’s alleged IRA background would have influenced the legal process in 1974 ahead of the Guildford Four’s trial.  Mr Conlon has always denied the allegations of belonging to the IRA.

What the released papers say

  • Suggestions Mr Conlan admitted he was aa IRA member until 1974 and that this intelligence information is thought to amount to very little
  • Throughout February 1994, the inquiry, which also examined the convictions of the Maguire Seven, debated whether the information should be disclosed “in the public interest” and the impact of demonstrating the four were not “innocents plucked from the streets”. A memo dated 9 February 1994 about the information said, “It is by no means conclusive of guilt but it does have the effect of destroying almost all the arguments and evidence deployed on the four’s behalf over the years.”

Mr Conlon, in a 2011 interview referred to the papers, “I lost so much that I need to have the truth come out. I need the papers that the government have put a public immunity interest on being released. I don’t support the IRA. I don’t support militant nationalism. I condemn them as much as I condemn the British government and the British police because they let us rot in prison when they could have helped us.

Calling for the release of the rest of the files, Mrs McKernan said,  “the government’s guilty of hiding evidence and to this very day they are still hiding the evidence. You’ve only got six files out of 700-and-odd. Release the rest of them. Release the rest of the files. Let the public see because surely I’ve nothing to hide and neither has my family.”

Mr Conlon died two years ago at the age of 60. He spent a quarter of his life in jail.

The remaining files show a release date of 1 January 2020.

A Home Office statement did not comment on matters of national security. But the Home Office did provide background which said the government expected to release the files as planned in 2020 “subject to any sensitive or personal safety issues that may arise”.

 

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