UK

Birmingham Six man Paddy Hill welcomes inquest into 1974 bombings

The Birmingham Six, John Walker, Paddy Hill, Hugh Callaghan – with Chris Mullen MP – Richard McIlkenny, Gerry Hunter and William Power outside the Old Bailey in London after their convictions were quashed
The Birmingham Six, John Walker, Paddy Hill, Hugh Callaghan – with Chris Mullen MP – Richard McIlkenny, Gerry Hunter and William Power outside the Old Bailey in London after their convictions were quashed The Birmingham Six, John Walker, Paddy Hill, Hugh Callaghan – with Chris Mullen MP – Richard McIlkenny, Gerry Hunter and William Power outside the Old Bailey in London after their convictions were quashed
By By Alexander Britton and Press Association

ONE of the Birmingham Six has hailed a coroner’s decision to resume inquests into the 21 victims of the pub bombings as a “first step” to getting “nearer the truth”.

Paddy Hill, who was jailed alongside five others for life in 1975 before his conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991, welcomed the ruling.

But speaking on the steps of the court, he said he was “sceptical” the truth about the circumstances surrounding the bombings would come out.

“We will never get justice but I tell you one thing that we can get and that’s the one thing we deserve the most – the truth,” he said.

“It’s not so much me, I know the truth, I want this for the families.

“They have had their whole worlds collapsed twice, once when we got convicted and they had something to focus on – they thought the guilty people were in prison.

“Then we get released and ever since, they’ve been fighting for this for 20 years.”

The former prisoner who spent 16 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, also criticised West Midlands Police.

“I don’t think the Birmingham police could spell the word ‘truth’, never mind tell it. They’re rotten,” he said.

“This is the first step on the road to hopefully getting a bit nearer the truth. Whether we will get the whole truth or not, I’m not sure. I’m very sceptical about that.”

Asked by the assembled reporters why he thought the West Midlands force had opposed the families’ legal bid for the coroner to resume the inquests, Mr Hill said: “There’s too many skeletons in the cupboard.

“[Police] had advanced warning before the bombs went off and they never took any notice and they did not take any steps to prevent it.

“If they had have done, the people that did the bombings would have been caught and convicted. Instead they let it happen and this is the result – 21 innocent people lost their lives and 200 people injured.”

West Midlands Police chief constable Dave Thompson said its response to the bombings was “the most serious failing in this force’s history”.

He said the force would assist the coroner’s office in its inquiries.