A ZEST for life settles uneasily on those who have been robbed of
freedom, but yesterday's first signal of a new beginning for the
Guildford Four was one of exuberance -- four pink carnations thrown
emotionally from the dock towards the public gallery, the press, and the
judiciary by each of the appellants so wrongfully imprisoned for almost
15 years in British jails.
The jigsaw of justice which had fallen into place, the phrase used by
Lord Donaldson as he sentenced them to life in 1975, had, in a matter of
hours, been shattered irrevocably. In quiet, unexpressive tones Lord
Chief Justice Lord Lane quashed the convictions for murder because of
newly discovered evidence which indicates that investigating Surrey
Police officers must have lied at the time of the Old Bailey trial.
At the start of yesterday's proceedings senior prosecutor Mr Roy
Amlot, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, had stated that the
evidence now available revealed five officers had seriously misled the
trial: three by concocting notes and two by falsifying times of
statements.
By 2.10pm Lord Lane, in his summing up, favoured no euphemisms and
gently chided Mr Amlot for the use of ''a rather anodyne phrase''. The
officers, he emphasised, ''must have lied''.
And so, back in the Old Bailey almost 15 years to the day of those
convictions, Paddy Armstrong, Carole Richardson, Paul Hill, and Gerard
Conlon were vindicated, the horror of trapped innocence with no recourse
being over at last and the grave miscarriage of justice.
But for the Crown's mistake there was no outright apology, only Lord
Lane's low key observation that the painstaking and perspicacious
investigations of the Avon and Somerset Police force had salvaged
something from ''this unhappy matter''.
Earlier in the hearing cheers overtook relatives and campaigners in
the public gallery as Mr George Carman, QC, representing Carole
Richardson, said that in the light of the new evidence, he ''thanked God
we do not have capital punishment''.
Of the four falsely convicted, Ms Richardson, the only one who is
English, remains physically the most unchanged. Her long hair is still
in the same straight style as at her trial, her eyebrows are still
thinly plucked, but her strong angular face belies a dependency on
tranquilisers, the legacy of her drug addiction adolescence.
She met Patrick Armstrong when she was 17 and living in London squats
as a refuge from a tempestuous home life. Today, she of the four is
perhaps the most terrified by freedom. A sufferer of mood swings between
good humour and depression, she is known to be a vulnerable spirit whose
time at Styal Prison has allowed her to indulge a love of animals,
caring for the jail's chickens and goats.
As recently as 1986 her letters to friends still reflected a stark
hopelessness about her situation: ''What hurts most,'' she wrote, ''is
that nothing is different now to what it was 10 or 12 years ago.
''The evidence, or should I say lack of it, is still the same. All
that's changed is the people telling it. Unfair isn't a strong enough
word for what I feel about it all, but I can't think of another one.''
Significantly yesterday Ms Richardson and Mr Armstrong left the court
together by a less crowded exit, supported by a few of his relatives
from the Divis Flats neighbourhood of Belfast. In Mr Armstrong's case
every year of his imprisonment seems to have eaten into his appearance.
The aimless, plump-faced youth with long hair who was sentenced on
October 22, 1975, is now gaunt-eyed and introspective looking, the
victim of a nervous breakdown last year and still being prescribed
anti-depressants.
Gerard Conlon, like the others, was living the life of a drifter
sustained by drink, drugs, and petty crime when he was arrested. But of
the four, he seems the most ebullient. He arrived in court yesterday
wearing a Harvard University sweatshirt and giving a thumbs up gesture
to his family.
Later he changed into a new shirt brought by his sisters and he was
the only member of the group to pause outside the Old Bailey and,
shaking with emotion, reaffirm his innocence: ''I've been in prison for
15 years for something I didn't do. Something I knew nothing about. I'm
totally innocent.
''I watched my father (Giuseppe Conlon, convicted with the Maguire
Seven) die in a British prison. He is innocent. Let's hope the
Birmingham Six and the Maguire Seven are now freed.''
There was a clenched fist salute but the image of an individual
convulsed by profound and confused emotions. In court Mr Anthony
Scrivener, Mr Conlon's QC, had, on behalf of his client, thanked the
judiciary and all those who had supported his case through the years.
But some indication of the strain Mr Conlon and Mr Armstrong were
feeling in yesterday's ordeal was evident in their absence from the news
conference held at the House of Commons later. Both were too exhausted
to attend.
Paul Hill, the most emaciated of the four, remains unfree, his Old
Bailey conviction quashed but his Belfast conviction for the murder of a
soldier still remaining, although grave doubt is now also cast on the
authenticity of its evidence. For his rebellious behaviour in various
jails Hill has spent almost four years in solitary confinement, he has
lost more than three stones in weight and suffered persistently from
stomach ailments.
His aunt, Mrs Theresa Smalley, claims he is suffering from a broken
cheek bone that requires immediate surgery and is the result of being
beaten up in prison after the last IRA bomb outrage at Deal.
That disclosure offers just one insight into the dreadfulness of this
incarceration saga. Another is the relevation by Hill's lawyer Mr
Michael Fisher that his client heard about this week's appeal when he
was woken ''at gunpoint'' in his cell on Tuesday morning with the news.
A year last February Paul Hill married Marion Savaralli, a purchasing
manager with a paper mill in New Jersey. The marriage ceremony was a
Roman Catholic one and took place with Hill in full morning dress in
Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight.
Because of the grave illness of her father, Marion Savaralli was not
in court yesterday to support her husband whom she has met less than
half a dozen times. Their friendship grew through correspondence after a
mutual friend had put them in touch. She now intends to travel to
Britain next week and eventually she hopes to find work for him in
America.
The Guildford Four, rootless and pathetic drop-outs, most of them from
the ugly mayhem of Belfast in the early seventies, were the first people
arrested after the introduction of the Prevention of Terrorism Act in
November 1974. They were the first to be held under the PTA for seven
days and to be denied legal representation until the end of the period.
Whatever the implications for the PTA of this case, it should never be
forgotten that Mr Armstrong, Ms Richardson, Mr Conlon, and Hill have
been not only the victims of a grievous miscarriage of justice but also
victims of the IRA. On a frieze outside Court Two in the Old Bailey are
the words: The Welfare of People is the Supreme Law. This time there is
no violence or hideous slaughter to condition our responses to justice.
Only anger and shame.
Continued on Page 2
Continued from Page 1
Old Bailey anger
Tears of joy2
Leader Comment14
Police role15
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