Guildford Four and Maguire Seven

Aftermath

Guildford Four and Maguire Seven

Neither the bombings nor the wrongful imprisonment resulted in convictions. The bombings were most likely the work of the Balcombe Street ASU, which claimed responsibility. They were already serving life sentences, but were released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Three British police officers—Thomas Style, John Donaldson and Vernon Attwell—were charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, but each was found not guilty.

On 9 February 2005, Prime Minister Tony Blair apologised to the families of the 11 people imprisoned for the bombings in Guildford and Woolwich and those related to those who were still alive. He said, in part, "I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and injustice... they deserve to be completely and publicly exonerated."

The Roman Catholic Church awarded Anne Maguire a Benemerenti medal for her 'remarkable ability to forgive' and her community work.{{cite news |access-date=25 November 2018

Hill had a televised meeting with the brother of murdered soldier Brian Shaw, who continued to accuse him. He travelled to Colombia to attend the trial of the Colombia Three.

Gerry Conlon's autobiography Proved Innocent was adapted into the film In the Name of the Father, with actor Daniel Day-Lewis portraying Conlon. The film depicts Conlon's attempt to rebuild his shattered relationship with his father but is partly fictional; Conlon never shared a cell with his father. He is reported to have settled with the government for compensation in the region of £500,000. Conlon gave support to Tommy Sheridan in relation to the charges brought against him.

Sarah Conlon, who spent 16 years campaigning to have the names of her husband and son cleared and helped secure the apology, died on 20 July 2008.

Paddy Armstrong had problems with drinking and gambling. He eventually married and moved to Dublin. Carole Richardson married and had a daughter soon after her release. She kept out of the public eye and died in 2012 aged 55.

The autobiography of the youngest member of the Maguire Seven, Patrick Maguire, My Father's Watch: The Story of a Child Prisoner in 70s Britain, was released in 2008. It tells his story before, during, and after his imprisonment and details its impact on his life and those of his family.{{Cite book | url-access = registration

Gerry Conlon later joined a campaign to free the "Craigavon Two", Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton, convicted of the murder of a police officer in Northern Ireland.

Conlon died at home in Belfast on 21 June 2014. His family issued a statement: "He brought life, love, intelligence, wit and strength to our family through its darkest hours. He helped us to survive what we were not meant to survive. We recognise that what he achieved by fighting for justice for us had a far, far greater importance—it forced the world's closed eyes to be opened to injustice; it forced unimaginable wickedness to be acknowledged; we believe it changed the course of history".

Sir John Donaldson went on to an illustrious judicial career and became Master of the Rolls, Head of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal. The appeal case itself for R v Maguire 1981, is now the leading case for disclosure to the defence. In 2018, the BBC broadcast the documentary A Great British Injustice: The Maguire Story, with the involvement of the Maguire family's surviving members.

Key prosecution figures

Many of the key figures in the British legal and criminal justice establishment who were responsible for the wrongful prosecution of the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven, while later facing public criticism, were never formally held accountable for their role in the scandal. In 2013, in what is believed to be the final media interview he gave before his premature death in 2014, Gerry Conlon told Italian documentary maker and photographer Lorenzo Moscia that every key British figure involved in his wrongful conviction had subsequently been promoted and reached the top of their respective profession. He contrasted this with the struggles and hardships he and the other wrongfully convicted people faced in the years after their release from prison.

Lord Justice Donaldson (trial judge)

Two months after Margaret Thatcher became British Prime Minister in 1979, the trial judge in the Guildford Four case, Lord Justice (John) Donaldson, was made a Lord Justice of Appeal and a Privy Counsellor. In 1982 he was appointed Master of the Rolls, the second-most-senior judicial office in England and Wales as head of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and Head of Civil Justice. In 1988 he was elevated to the House of Lords with a life peerage as Baron Donaldson of Lymington.

Sir Peter Imbert (Police investigator)

Peter Imbert, the then deputy head of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch in 1974, was the police officer who oversaw the arrest and interrogation of the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven. Lord Chief Justice Lane later called this investigation "a sequence of false confessions and police deceits." In late 1975 Imbert led the police operation that saw the arrest of the IRA's Balcombe Street ASU, members of which later confessed to being the real bombers in Guildford and Woolwich, a fact Imbert knew.

In 1976 Imbert was appointed Assistant Chief Constable, and later Deputy Chief Constable of Surrey Constabulary (the police force that investigated the Guildford pub bombings). In 1979, he became Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, the youngest Chief Constable in the country at that time. He returned to the Metropolitan Police as Assistant Commissioner in 1985, and in 1987 he was appointed Commissioner of the Met (the seniormost police force position in the UK) by then Conservative Home Secretary Douglas Hurd. Imbert retired from the police in 1992 and in was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Greater London from 1998 until 2008. He was appointed to the House of Lords as a life peer as Baron Imbert, of New Romney in the County of Kent in 1999, sitting as a crossbencher.

Sir Norman Skelhorn (Director of Public Prosecutions)

Sir Norman Skelhorn was the Director of Public Prosecutions in England and Wales in 1974 oversaw the Crown's prosecution of Guildford Four and Maguire Seven, as well as the prosecution of the Birmingham Six. Skelhorn had a chequered history in relation to prosecution of terrorist offences related to the Troubles. He became entangled in the row that erupted around the use of torture in Northern Ireland. Edward Heath, Prime Minister since 1970, had banned sensory deprivation in light of the report by Sir Edmund Compton into internment and interrogation techniques used by the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. In October 1973, while being questioned at a meeting of the Harvard Law School Forum, Skelhorn did not deny that torture had taken place. On the contrary, he stated that "when dealing with "Irish terrorists" any methods were justified."

Skelhorn retired as DPP before the publication of the critical report by Lord Devlin published in 1977 recommended statutory prosecution safeguards, on which the then Callaghan Government took no action.

Lord (Michael) Havers (Prosecuting counsel)

British barrister and Conservative politician Sir Michael Havers MP, was selected by DPP Norman Skelhorn to lead both the prosecution of the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven in 1974, and the Crown's case in opposing the subsequent appeals of both groups in the Court of Appeal.

Havers was from a distinguished legal family. His father was High Court judge Sir Cecil Havers, and his sister was Baroness Butler-Sloss who in 1988 became the first woman named to the Court of Appeal and later President of the Family Division. Sir Michael was the father of the well-known English actor Nigel Havers.

Havers was elected to the House of Commons in 1970 as Conservative MP for Wimbledon (a seat he held until 1987). He served as Solicitor General for England and Wales under Prime Minister Edward Heath from 1972 to 1974. By October 1974, with the Conservatives in opposition, Havers acted for the DPP in both prosecutions. In the case of the Guildford Four, the DPP was found to have suppressed alibi evidence that supported Gerry Conlon's and Paul Hill's claims of innocence. The DPP, for which Havers was acting, was also found to have suppressed confessions by Provisional IRA bombers in the Balcombe Street Gang, claiming responsibility for the Guildford and Woolwich bombings. While it was never directly shown that Havers knew of the evidence the DPP suppressed, many, including Labour MP Chris Mullin, cast doubt on his integrity in the matter in his submission to the May Inquiry into the wrongful convictions.

In 1977, Havers became a member of the Privy Council. In 1979, Thatcher reappointed him as Attorney-General for England and Wales and as Attorney General for Northern Ireland. He held both posts until 1987. During the Falklands War in 1982, Havers was included in Thatcher's War Cabinet, to which he provided advice on international law and rules of engagement.

After Havers retired from the House of Commons in the 1987 UK general election, Thatcher appointed him Lord Chancellor, and he consequently became a life peer as Baron Havers, of St Edmundsbury in the County of Suffolk. At the time, this made him a senior Minister of the Crown, the most senior judicial officer holder in the UK, as well as presiding officer of the House of Lords.

In popular culture

• In 1989 RTÉ aired Dear Sarah, a TV movie focusing on Sarah Conlon, Gerry Conlon and Giuseppe Conlon.
• In March 1991 Paul Hill appeared on the Channel 4 discussion programme After Dark with, among others, Patrick Cosgrave, J. P. Donleavy, David Norris, Emily O'Reilly and Francis Stuart.
• In May 1994 Paul Hill gave a half-hour Opinions lecture televised on Channel 4 and subsequently published in The Independent as "Prisoners on the Outside".
• The film In the Name of the Father starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite and Emma Thompson was based on the story of the Guildford Four as well as Conlon's biography. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards.
• The Guildford Four are mentioned in the track "Fifty in Five" from the Australian hip-hop album State of the Art which compiles major events of the past fifty years condensed into a five-minute song.
• The song "The Guildford Four" on the album "Himself" by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Andy White tells the story of their wrongful conviction. It was released in 1990 on Cooking Vinyl.

References

References

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2. (2023-08-15). "Paul Foot - Out For a Drink".
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5. Mullin, John. (2013-05-20). "From the archive, 20 May 1993: Guildford Four case detectives cleared". The Guardian.
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15. Lane, Geoffrey. "Judgement of the Court". R. V. Richardson, Conlon, Armstrong and Hill EWCA Crim.
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17. Kirby, Terry. (21 April 1993). "Detectives 'lied about Guildford Four notes': Terry Kirby reports on accusations that police tampered with confessions to gain bomb convictions". The Independent.
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38. (6 May 1994). "Prisoners on the outside: In our final essay on improving democracy".