I remember when I was seven the day that a family friend heard their brother had been killed, randomly you would say, in a pub bombing. Today the UK government apologized to eleven people falsely accused and illegally jailed for fifteen years for such bombings, they being only Irish in the wrong place at the wrong time. The apology comes another decade and a half years after the appeals court undid the wrong. Fifteen years to admit the wrong is strange except when you realize who was in charge when the wrong was undone by the good judges.
Have the rotten cops who rigged the evidence or the actual bombers ever been jailed for any of this?
Comments
alfons - February 9, 2005 8:23 PM
No, and I bet they (the cops) have a nice pension.
In related news, I read somewhere that in an equivalent case, the UK government wanted a wrongfully accused to pay for his imprisonment (you know: because of abundant use of government facilities).
Hans - February 10, 2005 10:26 AM
Googled "Birmingham 6" and found a story about Paddy Joe Hill who is still, understandably, angry. He's still waiting for an apology which, he says, is all he wants, at this point.
SayNay? - February 10, 2005 8:19 PM
Quelle surprise! They were at first celebrated, and then promoted:
-one of the policemen involved in the interrogations Peter Imbert was later knighted and appointed Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police for London, in 1987- the highest police post in Britain.
- the lead prosecuting counsel, Michael Havers, later went on to fill the role of Attorney General and then Lord Chancellor (yes, thatâ??s Lord Chancellor) third in order of precedence in the Kingdom and the constitutional head of the British legal system and Speaker in the House of Lords, under Margaret Thatcher.
- His Junior Counsel, Michael Hill was made a Recorder in 1977 and "took silk" in 1979.
- and last, but not least, the judge involved in the case, Sir John Donaldson, was "elevated" to Master of the Rolls, the head of the entire English civil court system.
Sorry, Al, I know its more than five lines but it's just Joe Friday Facts, not opinion - and I think you'll forgive me.
Alan - February 10, 2005 8:22 PM
All well mannered but - add the URL!!!