Frame-ups of the Diplock System: Travesties of Justice
An Phoblacht/Republican News June 9, 1994
EARLIER THIS YEAR [1994], the issue of what have become known as miscarriages of justice raised its ugly head again with the massive media coverage given to the acquittal of Paul Hill in Belfast's appeal court for the killing of British soldier Brian Shaw.
Following on from the well-publicised cases of the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four, the Maguires, Judith Ward, the UDR Four, and Nicky Kelly, a lot of people must have wondered as they watched Paul Hill walk free from the court, were there not many more similar cases among the nationalist community in the Six Counties. Within the community that has borne the brunt of repression and has seen so many of its men and women go to jail, can it really be true that none of them have been framed in the same way as the most famous frame-up cases in England?
Have none of them been convicted on the basis of false and perjured evidence similar to that used against Paul Hill? Have they never been forced to sign concocted statements?
Of course there are victims of frame-ups in jail in the Six Counties. Many of them. The RUC has never had any qualms about fitting up an innocent nationalist.
The Diplock system in essence is a counterinsurgency process. With a corrupt and brutal police force, a lower standard of evidence required and a case-hardened judge sitting without a jury, a conviction is much easier to obtain in a Diplock Court. It is therefore much more difficult to prove a convicted person innocent.
In order for a conviction to be overturned, an innocent person must furnish new evidence or discredit the evidence on which they were convicted. This has proven a difficult problem. For example, in 75-80% of cases it is estimated that the prosecution case has depended wholly or substantially on confession evidence.
However, over the last few years a number of events have come together to change the climate for those campaigning against miscarriages of justice and to give new hope to innocent people languishing in jail.
The first of these was the emergence of the ESDA testing. ESDA (Electro-Statis Document Analysis) is a forensic technique which allows a scientist to read indentations on paper. It is possible for a person to write on the top sheet of a writing pad and for a scientist to read the indentations on the sheet underneath. It is therefore possible to determine whether RUC interrogation notes have been fabricated or parts of them rewritten some time after the interrogation. ESDA testing helped secure the release of the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four and three of the UDR Four.
A number of prisoners in Long Kesh have asked the RUC to release their original interrogation notes to be ESDA tested. The replies have been devastating to the credibility of the RUC and point towards a massive cover-up.
The second climate-changing event was the incredible list of innocent people (mainly in Britain) released over the past two years. After years of often demoralising work by many dedicated campaigners, the judicial system finally had to own up to blatant travesties of justice. No longer can campaigners be dismissed as crypto-Provos who tell outlandish lies when they say that British justice jails innocent people.
One major lesson from these successful campaigns is that each case must be fought inch by inch. Even though the system is ultimately at fault, overturning a conviction is a painstaking legal task in each individual case. What is also clear, however, is that while the Diplock system remains in place, such travesties of justice will continue.
A large number of cases from the Six Counties have been taken up by civil liberties groups and below we highlight a selection of these.
There is a need for public support and widespread publicity for those wrongly convicted. But for these cases to be properly aired there must be a few ground rules. Firstly, gone are the days of behind-the-scenes influence and cocktail party contacts favoured by figures in the Catholic church, the SDLP and the nationalist middle class. Paul Hill, the Birmingham Six and others know the bankruptcy of that approach. Only through maximum support and publicity will justice be done.
Secondly, there needs to be some kind of impartial, independent body set up to investigate travesties of justice like those mentioned below.
The following list of cases alleging that a miscarriage of justice has occurred was given to the Sinn Fein Prisoner of War Department by the republican prisoners in the H-Blocks at Long Kesh. Sinn Fein is not asking people to automatically believe that these men are innocent just because they say so. What they are asking journalists, civil liberties groups, politicians, the clergy, trade unionists, women's groups and others to do is to begin seriously to call for an independent tribunal where the truth or otherwise of these allegations of a miscarriage of justice can be tested and then everyone will be able to examine the evidence for themselves and draw their own conclusions.
Barry Murray (Fermanagh) - Sentence: 18 years. Convicted solely on contested 'oral admission'. ESDA tests proved RUC rewrote interview notes. At least one RUC man involved was also involved in the UDR Four case. Requested further tests on all interview notes and informed by RUC that these and court exhibits had 'gone missing'. He lost his appeal.
Michael Hillen, Seamus Mathers (Newry) - Sentence: 21 years. Convicted on basis of forensic evidence. At trial serious irregularities regarding forensic procedures were uncovered. Evidence such as photographs, vital to their defence, were withheld.
Ned Maguire (Belfast) - Sentence: Life. Recently released on life licence after serving 17 years. Conviction based on dubious and conflicting identification evidence. Accused of shooting dead a judge. A girl witness identified him as the person running away from the scene. This witness had earlier picked out two other men (who had alibis) as being the person responsible for the killing.
Gerry Magee (Antrim) - Sentence: 20 years. Convicted solely on basis of signed RUC statement. Statement obtained through use of brutality. At trial, ESDA tests proved rewriting of important interview notes and false authentication of them by a senior RUC officer. The two RUC men involved in this rewriting were proved, on an earlier occasion, via ESDA, to have rewritten interview notes in the case of Liam McGrath. This led to McGrath's acquittal.
Ronan McCartan, Gary McKay (Tyrone) - Sentence: 12 and 10 years respectively. Convicted after a Diplock court judge drew inference of guilt from the fact that both men maintained their 'right to silence' while under RUC interrogation. This aspect was used to bolster a nonexistent case. Both men were arrested along with another man who was forensically linked to an arms find. There was no evidence to link Ronan or Gary to this find. The judge used inference and their 'association' with this man to effect a conviction.
Kevin Murray (Strabane). Sentence: 18 years. Forensic evidence claimed to have linked him to a car which the prosecution asserted was used in an attempt on the life of a UDR soldier. When the forensic evidence was largely discredited, the trial judge relied on the fact that Kevin exercised his 'right to silence' while in RUC custody in order to convict. A court appeal, and an appeal to the British House of Lords, both failed.
Edward McClelland (Armagh). Sentence: Life. Convicted of involvement in the killings of three RUC officers. Conviction was based solely on concocted uncorroborated oral admissions. He claims that discredited RUC detectives involved in the UDR 4 case 'verballed' him. When he applied for an ESDA test on case papers he was informed that interview notes were 'missing'.
Christopher Walsh (Belfast) - Sentence: 14 years. After being arrested by members of a British army patrol, close to where a 'coffee jar' bomb was found, Christopher was convicted on the basis of lies told by the arresting soldiers, and his failure to explain his circumstances early enough, during RUC interrogation.
Peter Markey (Newry) - Sentence: Life. Convicted on a 'verbal' statement, made under duress, 'admitting' peripheral involvement in a bombing in which a security guard and RUC man died. This 'admission' was obtained after being told that his pregnant girlfriend would be charged.
Brian McLarnon (Tyrone) - Sentence: Ten years. Convicted of possession of weapons after calling at a house in which firearms were found concealed. An otherwise unsustainable prosecution succeeded when the trial judge used Brian's 'silence' while in RUC custody as evidence against him.
Bobby Fitzsimmons (Belfast) Sentence: 20 years. Convicted of possession of a 'coffee jar' bomb on basis of having been arrested in the vicinity of the bomb and having decided not to cooperate with the RUC during interrogation. Arresting officers claimed to have seen him act suspiciously. He disputes their evidence of ''identification''.
Thomas O'Dwyer (Belfast) - Sentence: 22 years. Convicted on a number of charges including attempted murder on basis of extracted 'confessions' by use of RUC ill-treatment, injuries, including damage to this hand, was noted by a doctor. At trial, the judge described the injuries as ''inconclusive'' and stated that they may have been self-inflicted.
Edmund Harkin (Derry) - Sentence: Life. Released in 1992 after serving life sentence. Attempted to have ESDA tests done on 'confessions' which were the sole basis of his conviction Informed by RUC that these notes cannot be produced. His statements were obtained by use of severe ill-treatment which was documented by two doctors, his family, and a friend who saw him in custody.
Roy McCool (Derry) - Sentence: Convicted on the basis of conflicting forensic and identification evidence (ID) of running from a van containing mortars after a high-speed chase involving the British army. It is contended that a forensic scientist testimony cut right across the prosecutions assertion that Roy was the front-seat passenger in the van. This evidence was stated in court. The trial judge glossed over this evidence and three appeal court judges chose to ignore it.
Ciaran McAllister, Danny Pettigrew, Anthony Garland, Michael Hugh Beck, Hugh McLaughlin, Stephen McMullan, Brendan McCrory (Belfast) (The Ballymurphy Seven). In August 1991, a number of young people from the greater Ballymurphy area of West Belfast were arrested and interrogated in connection with an IRA attack. The youths, who ranged in age from 17 to 21 were taken to Castlereagh Interrogation Centre in Belfast and held for up to six days where four of them alleged that they were forcibly coerced, through mental and physical torture to sign written confessions prepared for them by their interrogators. They were denied access to lawyers for the first 72 hours.
The arresting offices made no attempt to collect forensic evidence and there were no material witnesses. Among those also arrested at that time was Damien Austin, whose case received international attention when Amnesty International issued its first ever 'Urgent Action' notice in respect for someone in Ireland. An 'Urgent Action' notice is only made by Amnesty when they believe that someone is in imminent danger of torture or assassination.
The Diplock system was twice discredited in the Ballymurphy Seven case this year when both Brendan McCrory and Ciaran McAllister were released by Belfast Crown Court. Charges against both were dropped after the RUC 'evidence' was exposed as concocted.
Kilde:
http://wwwvms.utexas.edu/~jdana/diplock.html
