Northern Ireland

Funeral to take place for last man in north to receive death sentence

Liam Holden, pictured with loved ones in 2012 following the quashing of his 1972 murder conviction at Belfast High Court. Picture: Pacemaker
Liam Holden, pictured with loved ones in 2012 following the quashing of his 1972 murder conviction at Belfast High Court. Picture: Pacemaker Liam Holden, pictured with loved ones in 2012 following the quashing of his 1972 murder conviction at Belfast High Court. Picture: Pacemaker

A FUNERAL service for the last person to be sentenced to death in the north will take place tomorrow in his native west Belfast.

Liam Holden, who died last Thursday at the age of 68, will be laid to rest following a service at St John's Church at Falls Road.

A victim of torture by members of the Parachute Regiment, Mr Holden was forced into confessing to the killing of paratrooper Private Frank Bell, who was shot dead in the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast in 1972. A month after the killing, which was the result of a single sniper's bullet, Mr Holden was arrested at his Whiterock home by British army members under the Special Powers Act.

Then aged just 18 and working as a chef, Mr Holden was tortured into making a confession after being taken to a military post and subjected to interrogation techniques including waterboarding. He was also threatened with being dumped in a loyalist area of north Belfast and left at the mercy of paramilitaries, and had a gun held to his head.

Upon confessing under duress, he was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death by hanging, but his sentence was later commuted to life in prison and he spent 17 years behind bars before being released in 1989 on licence.

His quest to clear his name was completed in 2012 when his conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal. His case was examined in an ITV documentary in 2015 on the repeal of the death penalty in the UK.

At the beginning of this year, Mr Holden launched a civil case at Belfast High Court against the Ministry of Defence over the waterboarding used in his 1972 interrogation.

A funeral notice described him as "father of Samuel and Bronagh, husband of Pauline" and the son of the late Martha and Samuel.

Following tomorrow's funeral service, a burial will take place at Belfast City Cemetery.