Convicted IRA bomber is confronted on TV over alleged role in Birmingham pub bombings

An ITV documentary will tonight show a convicted IRA bomber being confronted over his suspected role in the Birmingham pub bombings of 1974.

The 63-year-old suspect was approached by investigative reporter John Ware as he left a Tesco in Belfast.

The alleged former Birmingham IRA member denied planting the bombs, or knowing that the bombings were going to take place. 

He responded to further questions with: ‘I’ve got nothing to say… Well, you can ask what you want, but I’m not going to answer… You’re wasting your time.’

The suspect will be named on ITV but newspapers in Northern Ireland and websites that can be viewed there have chosen not to name him.

This is because recent laws providing protections against libel claims do not apply in Northern Ireland.

The Defamation Act 2013 Act requires claimants to show actual or probable serious harm and provides a public interest defence.

But it was blocked in the Northern Ireland Assembly despite campaigners’ insistence the province’s libel laws have not been altered for 175 years.  

Firemen at work following the bomb attacks in Birmingham city centre that targeted the Mulberry Bush pub and the Tavern in the Town 

A body is carried from the Mulberry Bush pub in Birmingham after it was wrecked by a bomb in 1974

A body is carried from the Mulberry Bush pub in Birmingham after it was wrecked by a bomb in 1974

The suspect’s solicitor told ITV: ‘Our client denies all the allegations… and does not intend to respond any further to the unfounded allegations you have made.’

The confrontation is an excerpt from a new documentary by the journalist on the pub bombings and who was behind them, which is due to be broadcast at 10.45pm tonight.

ITV’s The Hunt For The Birmingham Bombers comes days after the Court of Appeal backed a coroner’s decision not to allow the forthcoming resumed inquests into the deaths of the bomb victims to examine who was responsible for the atrocity, Britain’s biggest unsolved terror crime.

In Northern Ireland it is not listed to air on UTV, the ITV Network’s local affiliate.

Julie Hambleton said today: 'We feel as though we’ve been punched in the stomach again'

Maxine Hambleton was 18 when she was killed in the bombings

Julie Hambleton (left), whose sister Maxine (right) was 18 when she was killed in the bombings, said on Wednesday: ‘We will continue to fight for truth, justice and accountability’

Announcing the Court of Appeal’s decision over the forthcoming resumed inquests, Lord Burnett said coroner Sir Peter Thornton had made ‘no error of law’ when he ruled in July 2017 that trying to identify suspected bombers would be unlawful because the inquests could be seen as ‘taking on the role of a proxy trial’. 

Campaigners said the hearings will be ‘utterly redundant’ without discussing who built and planted the bombs that decimated two city centre pubs 44 years ago. 

AN IRA ATROCITY AND 44 YEARS OF HEARTBREAK 

Thursday, November 21, 1974:

Bombings in two Birmingham pubs leave 21 dead and 222 injured. They are said to be revenge for the death of IRA member James McDade, who blew himself up trying to plant explosives in Coventry. Hours later, five men are arrested in Heysham, Lancashire, and a sixth is arrested in Birmingham.

November 24:

Patrick Hill, Hugh Callaghan, John Walker, Richard McIlkenny, Gerard Hunter and Billy Power are charged with murder.

June/August 1975:

Trial at Lancaster Crown Court. ‘The Six’ are sentenced to life imprisonment.

October 1985:

TV’s World In Action questions forensic tests. A book is then published claiming three unnamed men were behind the bombings.

January 1987:

The home secretary refers case to the Court of Appeal. The appeal is later dismissed. A 1990 TV drama then names four ‘real’ bombers.

March 14, 1991:

The Six are freed by the Court of Appeal after 16 years in prison.

October 1993:

Perjury case against three former West Midlands police involved in the charging of the Birmingham Six is dismissed.

June 1, 2016:

Senior coroner for Birmingham rules to resume the inquests. The original hearings were not continued after jailing of The Six.

September 29, 2018: 

Families lose their legal battle to name those responsible for the bombings in the inquests 

 

Speaking near a memorial to the victims in the grounds of Birmingham’s Anglican Cathedral, members of Justice4the21 said they were seeking legal advice with a view to an appeal.

Julie Hambleton, whose sister Maxine was 18 when she was killed in the bombings, said on Wednesday: ‘We feel as though we’ve been punched in the stomach again. What we do, we do for 21 people who aren’t here to do it for themselves. They don’t have a voice, they don’t have a physical presence, but we do so we are their voice. 

‘Without the perpetrator issue how can you ever possibly finish the jigsaw? You have got a major part of it missing.’

She added: We are clearly very disappointed and we feel rejected but we will continue to fight for truth, justice and accountability.

‘We will take stock, speak to our legal team and get their assessment of the decision – and then either decide appeal or just to continue on with the inquest process. We will dust ourselves down and continue to fight’. 

Sir Peter challenged a High Court ruling made earlier this year which ordered him to reconsider his decision to exclude an inquiry into the identities of those who ‘planted, planned, procured and authorised the bombs’. 

The bombings in two city centre pubs, widely believed to be the work of the IRA, killed 21 people and injured 182, making it the deadliest peacetime attack in the UK at the time. 

Six men, known as the Birmingham Six, were imprisoned for the murders and served 17 years behind bars in one of Britain’s most infamous miscarriages of justice before their convictions were quashed.

Five West Midlands Police officers were charged with perverting the course of justice in connection with the original criminal investigation, but a judge ruled in 1993 that a fair trial would be impossible.

During the appeal proceedings before the three judges in July, lawyers for the coroner said the hearings will not resolve the ”enduring injustice’ for victims and their families.

Peter Skelton QC, representing the coroner, said the victims, their families and the public interest ‘cannot be served’ by a promised resolution that ‘cannot be delivered’.

Two High Court judges, sitting in Birmingham in January, quashed the decision by Sir Peter to exclude the ‘perpetrator issue’ from the new hearings.

Their ruling followed a judicial review brought on behalf of the bereaved families by Julie Hambleton, whose sister Maxine was 18 when she was killed in the bombings.

A man grips an ambulance bar in pain after being among more than 180 people injured in two blasts seven minutes apart

A man grips an ambulance bar in pain after being among more than 180 people injured in two blasts seven minutes apart

Hugh Southey QC, representing the families, told the appeal judges: ‘There is the utmost public interest in the proper investigation of who was responsible for the Birmingham bombings.

‘The families of the deceased said to the appellant (Sir Peter) that the investigation of this issue was so important to them that if it did not form part of the scope of the inquest ‘we may as well not have an inquest at all’.’

On the evening of 21 November 1974, hundreds of people were spending the evening drinking in two busy pubs in the centre of Birmingham – the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern In The town. 

Many were young office workers out with friends and work colleagues. 

A man with an Irish accent telephoned the Birmingham Post newspaper with a warning at 8.11pm but it was too late. 

At 8.18pm a bomb in a duffel bag exploded in the Mulberry Bush, killing 10 people. Two minutes later another blast at the Tavern In The Town killed 11 people. 

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