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Cameron to consider Guildford 4 man's dying wish

DAVID Cameron will "look at" the possibility of fulfilling Gerry Conlon's dying wish for people he nominated to have access to secret government documents about the 1974 IRA Guildford pub bombing for which he was wrongly jailed.

Mr Conlon and the rest of the Guildford Four served 15 years of a life sentence for the attack which killed five people and injured 65, before their convictions were overturned in 1989.

Foyle SDLP MP Mark Durkan said Mr Conlon was promised access to the secret documents at the National Archives in Kew, west London, through the previous victims commissioner for Northern Ireland.

Mr Durkan said Mr Conlon's dying wish was that those people see the papers, which he said will not be released until 75 years after they were first circulated - 45 years longer than the standard 30 years.

Mr Durkan asked the prime minister to honour that wish and mentioned Mr Conlon's campaign for better quality mental health services for victims of miscarriages of justice, an issue he said had been "parked" by the British government due to budget restrictions.

He asked Mr Cameron: "Notwithstanding the egregious 75-year seal that has been put on the Guildford and other papers, Gerry was recently promised access to the archives at Kew and that people could accompany him. It was his dying wish that that would be honoured through the people he wanted to accompany him."

Mr Cameron replied: "It is hard to think what 15 years in prison when you're innocent of a crime that you have been convicted for would do to somebody. "I think it is absolutely right that the previous prime minister apologised as fulsomely as he did when this came to pass. "I'm very happy to look at the specific request about the records at Kew which hasn't been put to me before and perhaps contact you about that issue."