The Guildford Four were a group of people (Paul Hill, Gerry Conlon, Patrick 'Paddy' Armstrong and Carole Richardson), who were wrongly convicted in the United Kingdom in October 1975 for the Provisional IRA's Guildford pub bombing — which killed five people and injured sixty-five more — and imprisoned for over 15 years. In 1990 their case was overturned based on evidence that the police had lied in order to convict them. A miscarriage of justice is primarily the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime that he or she did not commit. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) is a paramilitary group which aimed, through the use of violence, to achieve three goals: (i) British withdrawal from Ireland, (ii) the political unification of Ireland through the merger of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland , and (iii) the creation of an all... The Guildford pub bombing occurred on October 5, 1974. ...

On February 9, 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued an apology to the families of the eleven people imprisoned for the bombings in Guildford and Woolwich, and those related to them who were still alive, by saying, in part: 'I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and injustice (…) they deserve to be completely and publicly exonerated.' February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister is the head of government, exercising many of the executive functions nominally vested in the Sovereign, who is head of state. ... For other people of the same name, see Tony Blair (disambiguation) Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953)[1] is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Leader of the UK Labour Party, and Member of the UK Parliament... Statistics Population: 66819 (2001) Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: SU9949 Administration District: Guildford Shire county: Surrey Region: South East England Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: Surrey Historic county: Surrey Services Police force: Surrey Police Ambulance: South East Coast Post office and telephone Post town: GUILDFORD... Woolwich is a suburb in south-east London, England in the London Borough of Greenwich, on the south side of the River Thames, though the tiny exclave of North Woolwich (which is now part of the London Borough of Newham) is on the north side of the river. ...

No one was convicted or punished for wrongdoing for either the bombing or the case of the wrongful imprisonment. Three UK police officers were charged, but they were each found innocent.^[1]

Background

Paul Michael Hill was born and raised in Belfast to an unhappily married mixed-religion couple. WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ...

There was never any evidence that he or any of "The Four" had been involved with the PIRA - and they did not 'fit the bill' in terms of lifestyle. Patrick Armstrong and Carole Richardson, an Englishwoman, lived in a squat, and were involved with drugs and petty crime. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) is a paramilitary group which aimed, through the use of violence, to achieve three goals: (i) British withdrawal from Ireland, (ii) the political unification of Ireland through the merger of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland , and (iii) the creation of an all... This article is about occupying land without permission. ...

At their trial, the Guildford Four claimed they had been tortured by police until they had agreed to sign a false confession. After they were convicted of murder and received the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, the judge expressed regret that the Four had not been charged with treason, which then still had a mandatory death penalty. Torture is defined by the United Nations Convention Against Torture as any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he... Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime, nominally for the entire remaining life of the prisoner, but in fact for a period which varies between jurisdictions: many countries have a maximum possible period of time a prisoner may be incarcerated, or require the possibility of parole... Traitor redirects here. ... Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. ...

During the trial of the Balcombe Street gang in February 1977, the four IRA men instructed their lawyers to 'draw attention to the fact that four totally innocent people were serving massive sentences' for three bombings in Woolwich and Guildford. They were never charged with these offences. However, no evidence has ever been presented that proves the involvement of the four men; they never actually admitted any personal responsibility, and the IRA never identified the true perpetrators of the attack. The Balcombe Street Siege was an incident involving members of the Provisional IRA (Irish Republican Army) and the London Metropolitan Police lasting from December 6 to December 12, 1975. ... The Kings Arms is a public house in Woolwich, London that was bombed in 1974 and is now a landmark on the route of the London Marathon. ... The Guildford pub bombing occurred on October 5, 1974. ...

The Guildford Four tried to make an appeal under Section 17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968 (later repealed), but were unsuccessful and, in 1987 the Home Office issued a memorandum, recognizing that it was unlikely the Four were terrorists but that this would not be sufficient evidence for appeal. 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The modern concept of Small Office and Home Office or SoHo , or Small or Home Office deals with the category of business which can be from 1 to 10 workers. ...

Further evidence and a final appeal

In 1989, a detective looking at the case found typed notes from Patrick Armstrong's police interviews, which had been heavily edited. Deletions and additions had been made, and the notes had been rearranged. These notes, and their amendments, were consistent with hand-written and typed notes presented at the trial, which suggested that the hand-written notes were made after the interviews had been conducted. The implication of this was that the police had manipulated the notes, to fit with the case they wanted to present. 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

An appeal was granted on the basis of this new evidence. They were represented by noted human rights solicitor, Gareth Peirce. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lane, said that the police had either: Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... Jean Gareth Peirce (born c. ... The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales was, historically, the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor. ... Geoffrey Dawson Lane, Baron Lane AFC PC (17 July 1918 – 22 August 2005) was a British Judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of England from 1980 to 1992. ...

• completely fabricated the typed notes, amending them to make them look more effective, and then creating hand-written notes to give the appearance of contemporaneous notes; or
• started off with contemporaneous notes, typed them up to make them more legible, amended them to make them read better, and then converted them back to hand-written notes.

Either way, the police had lied, and the conclusion was if they had lied about this, the entire evidence was misleading, and the Four were released in 1989, after having their convictions quashed. 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Paul Hill had also been convicted of the murder of a British soldier, Brian Shaw, having 'confessed' to the crime while in the custody of Surrey Police. He was released on bail, pending his appeal against this conviction. In 1994, the Court of Appeal in Belfast quashed Hill's conviction for Brian Shaw's murder. 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ...

The Maguire Seven - made up of several family members of Gerry Conlon, including his father Giuseppe, his aunt and his 14- and 16-year-old cousins - were also imprisoned in the same case, mainly for explosives offences. Giuseppe Conlon died in prison, having had troubles with his lungs for many years. The Maguire Seven case was an infamous event of wrongful conviction in the United Kingdom. ...

After the appeals

Gerry Conlon's autobiography Proved Innocent was adapted into the Oscar- and Bafta-award nominated 1993 film In the Name of the Father, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Emma Thompson and Pete Postlethwaite. He is reported to have settled with the government for a final payment of compensation in the region of £400,000 to £500,000. Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), is a British organization that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, childrens film and television, and interactive media. ... // March 31 - Actor Brandon Lee is accidentally killed during the filming of The Crow. ... In The Name Of The Father is a 1993 film directed by Jim Sheridan which tells the story of a man, falsely convicted of the Provisional IRAs Guildford pub bombing, who tries to prevent his father from being involved in the accusation. ... Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957), is an Academy Award winning and Golden Globe award nominated actor. ... Thompson in the 1989 film The Tall Guy Emma Thompson (born April 15, 1959) is a two-time Academy Award and BAFTA-winning English actress, comedienne, and screenwriter. ... Pete Postlethwaite OBE (born February 7, 1945)[1] is an English actor. ...

Paul Hill married Mary Courtney Kennedy, daughter of the late United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and they had a daughter, Saoirse Roisín Kennedy. The couple are now legally separated. Robert Francis Bobby Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also called RFK, was one of two younger brothers of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and served as United States Attorney General from 1961 to 1964. ...

See also

• Maguire Seven
• Birmingham Six

The Maguire Seven case was an infamous event of wrongful conviction in the United Kingdom. ... The Birmingham Six were six men—Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker—sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 in an infamous miscarriage of justice for two pub bombings in Birmingham, England on November 21, 1974 that killed 21 people. ...

External links

• Life for a life sentences to warn the IRA — A report on the sentencing phase of the original trial, The Guardian, October 23, 1975
• British Prime Minister apologises, The Guardian, February 10, 2005
• Summary of the cases from the BBC

The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... October 23 is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is one of the largest broadcasting corporations in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of more than £4 billion. ...

References

• An Phoblacht/Republican News (May 7, 1998)