Maguire Seven
The Maguire Seven refers to seven people: Anne Maguire, 40; husband Patrick, 42; sons Vincent, 17 and fourteen-year-old Patrick; together with her brother William Smyth, 37, brother-in-law, Patrick Giuseppe Conlon (Giuseppe), 52 and family friend Patrick O'Neill, 35. They were subject to a miscarriage of justice whereby they were imprisoned.
On 3 December 1973 the Willesden house of Anne Maguire was raided by police and they were falsely accused of running a bomb-making factory for the Provisional IRA. Forensic scientists had falsely asserted that the hands of each defendant had tested positive for nitroglycerine.[1] Giuseppe was father of Gerry Conlon who would himself be wrongly convicted for the Guildford pub bombing. Giuseppe had travelled to London from Belfast to help his son mount a legal defence in the Guildford Four trial. Giuseppe Conlon died in prison in January 1980 having had trouble with his lungs for many years.
In 1991 the Maguire Seven were exonerated, the survivors by this time having all either served their prison sentences in full.[2] The story was dramatised along with that of the Guildford Four in the film In the Name of the Father.
Charges
The Maguire Seven were charged with possessing nitroglycerine destined for the Provisional Irish Republican Army(IRA) to make bombs after the police raided the West Kilburn house of Gerry Conlon's aunt, Anne Maguire on 3 December 1974.
Conviction
They were tried under The Hon. Mr Justice Donaldson. On 4 March 1976 all seven were convicted and sentenced as follows.
They were tried and convicted on 4 March 1976 and received the following sentences:
| Defendant | Relationship | Age at time of trial |
Sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anne Maguire | 40 | 14 years | |
| Patrick Maguire Sr. | Anne's husband | 42 | 14 years |
| Patrick Maguire Jr. | Son of Anne and Patrick | 14 | 4 years |
| Vincent Maguire | Son of Anne and Patrick | 17 | 5 years |
| Sean Smyth | Brother of Anne Maguire | 37 | 12 years |
| Patrick O'Neill | Family friend | 35 | 12 years |
| Patrick Conlon | Brother-in-law of Anne | 52 | 12 years; died in prison in 1980 |
First appeal
In 1977, the Seven unsuccessfully appealed against their convictions. Despite this, a growing body of disparate groups pressed for a re-examination of the case. In 1986, Robert Key published Trial & Error: the Maguires, the Guildford Pub Bombings and British Justice.
May inquiry
In 1989 following the quashing of the Guildford Four convictions, Sir John May was appointed to inquire into both that and the related case of the Maguire Seven.[3] On 12 July 1990, the Home Secretary David Waddington published:
- Interim Report on the Maguire Case : The Inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the convictions arising out of the bomb attacks in Guildford and Woolwich in 1974[4]
The report criticised the trial judge The Hon. Mr Justice Donaldson. It unearthed improprieties in the handling of scientific evidence and declared the convictions unsound, recommending referral back to the Court of Appeal.
Maguire Seven inquiry
On 12 July 1990, the Home Secretary, David Waddington, published the Interim Report on the Maguire Case: The Inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the convictions arising out of the bomb attacks in Guildford and Woolwich in 1974, which criticised the trial judge, Mr Justice Donaldson and unearthed improprieties in the handling of scientific evidence, declared the convictions unsound and recommended referral back to the Court of Appeal.[5] The convictions of the Maguire Seven were quashed in 1991.
It is alleged that members of the London Metropolitan Police beat confessions out of some of the members, and withheld information that would have cleared them. An IRA active service unit known as the Balcombe Street Gang admitted the bombings when apprehended, and informed the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions that they had wrongfully sentenced others for these crimes. With no corroborating evidence, no officers involved were charged with the perversion of the course of justice.
Public Apology
On February 9, 2005, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 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.'
The Speaker of the House Michael Martin had refused to allow the Prime Minister to use his weekly Prime Minister's Questions to make the public apology from the Dispatch box.
See also
References
- ↑ "Gerry Conlon obituary". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 June 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2014. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Gerry Conlon, wrongfully imprisoned for IRA attack, dies at 60". The Globe and Mail (from New York Times News Service). Archived from the original on 23 June 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2014. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Beverley Schurr. "Expert Witnesses and the Duties of Disclosure & Impartiality: The Lessons of the IRA Cases in England" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2003-10-27. Retrieved 2007-08-05. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Hansard Debates 12 July 1990". Archived from the original on 2007-11-14. Retrieved 2007-08-09. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "House of Commons". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. 12 July 1990. col. 436–441. Search this book on
External links
- Obituary of Sister Sarah Clarke, a key figure in the campaign to free the Maguire Seven and other wrongfully imprisoned IRA suspects, which tells the story of the wrongful imprisonments.
- Miscarriages of justice
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