Andrew Carey
andrew@limerickpost.ie
THE next generation of law makers have been warned that miscarriages of justice still exist.
Gerry Conlon and Paddy Joe Hill served a combined total of 31 years in prison for convictions that were later deemed “unsafe and unsatisfactory” by courts of criminal appeal in the UK.
This week, the pair were addressing law students from the University of Limerick and speaking of their time in prison and working through the British legal system as well as their vocation to fight for those still subject to what they say is MI5’s “dirty tricks”.
In 1975, Gerry Conlon was one of four men jailed for life after a court convicted them of two pub bombings in Guilford where five people were killed.
The same year, Paddy Joe Hill was sentenced to life in prison after a court convicted him of two pub bombings in Birmingham where 21 people were killed.
The bombings were part of a campaign of terror by the Provisional IRA where pubs frequented by British Army personnel were targeted.
Convictions against the Guilford Four and the Birmingham Six were later quashed but their papers have been held under the Secrets Act and can not be released until at least 2066.
In his campaign, Gerry Conlon, who served 15 years in prison, says that lessons need to be learned to avoid miscarriages of justice and the law makers of the future need to be aware of this
“Mistakes do happen but it is a vocation that you are taking on that you are going to be advocating on behalf of that could possibly be innocent, that could possibly befall the same situation that Paddy and myself have befallen.
“It is the duty and representation to go in with a fair, open and honest mind, not to be desuaded by politics or by the press into having an assumption before you go to defend someone.
Paddy Joseph Hill served 16 years and now lives in Scotland since his release, says that he has been advocating against miscarriages of justice since he came out of prison.
“We seem to have a great number of miscarriages of justice in Britain. We were deliberately fitted up from day one and we were just used as scapegoats and pawn for the police, the judiciary and the Government just to quell public outcry.”
Paddy said that some people emerge from prison and just get on with their lives and forget about what happened or forget about those left inside.
“When I got out of prison, I made a promise to people that I would carry on fighting for them. Gerry made a promise to me and I have made a promise to others.
“I said that the trend that I had seen in the UK, it meant that there was going to be a hell of a lot of more innocent people that were going to end up in prison. There’s more innocent people in the UK today then there’s ever been”, he warned.
