Fresh probe into UK’s 1974 Birmingham bombings

London / AFP

A coroner on Wednesday ordered a re-examination of the deaths of 21 people in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, one of Britain’s worst ever terror attacks, after claims that police failed to act on two warnings.
Coroner Louise Hunt ordered new inquests for the victims killed in the twin attacks, which were widely blamed on the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) paramilitary group, although it never formally claimed responsibility.
She said there was evidence that police missed two warnings about the November 21, 1974 attack, which left 182 people injured —one 11 days before, and another on the day of the bombings itself. The attack on two pubs in Britain’s second biggest city came at the height of the IRA’s bloody campaign to end British rule in the province of Northern Ireland.
“I have serious concerns that advanced notice of the bombs may have been available to the police and that they failed to take the necessary steps to protect life,” Hunt said.
She cited the two potential warnings, saying that “it is only in respect of that issue that I consider there is sufficient reason to resume an inquest to investigate the circumstances of these deaths”.
Some relatives have claimed police were protecting an informant within the IRA, but Hunt said this was unfounded.
She also said the emergency services’ response was not a contributing factor towards the deaths.
Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine died in the attacks, welcomed the decision to resume the inquests. “All we want is to be heard so we can get the truth, justice and accountability,” she told reporters outside the coroners’ court.
She also urged the “cowards” responsible to give themselves up, saying: “If you have any level of humanity, any moral compass, then by rights you should come forward.”

Miscarriage of justice
The original inquests—judicial fact-finding investigations that do not apportion blame—were halted by a police probe that led to six men being wrongly jailed for the bombings in 1975.
The conviction of the so-called Birmingham Six was ruled unsafe by the Court of Appeal in 1991 and they were freed, after what is seen as one of Britain’s greatest miscarriages of justice.
No one has since been convicted, but the police investigation remains open.
One of the Birmingham Six, Paddy Hill, said the new inquests were “the first step” but said he was “very sceptical” that the whole truth would emerge.
Dave Thompson, chief constable of West Midlands Police, said the failure to catch the bombers and the wrongful conviction of the Birmingham Six was “the most serious failing in this force’s history”. “I hope the new inquest provides answers to families,” he said, adding that the police force would “assist the process now under way”.
However, he warned against any hopes of imminent prosecutions in the case. “Since 2012 and directly as a result of the campaign by families of those who died we have carefully reassessed the opportunities to bring the people responsible to justice,” he said.
“Despite an intense scrutiny we have not been able to see, at this time, a prospect of doing this.”