the Guildford trial the senior forensic officer of the arenal responsible for investigating explosives linked the explosions at Guildford to a series of others. He was told to 'take out of your statement all forensic links that show Guildford is linked with all these other offences and just limit it to Guildford. 'He said: I was told to take it out of my statement.' Yet despite this the Guildford four remain in jail.
Equally horrific was the case of those convicted in the Maguire's trial - Annie Maguire is the aunt of Gerald Conlon framed up for the Guildford bombings. No explosives were ever found by the police. Swabs were taken on the hands of those in their house when police raided it and these were the sole evidence in the case. The tests were the same ones that have been shown to be meaningless in the case of the Birmingham six.
None of the family were Republicans. Some were members of the Paddington Conservative club. Sean Smyth was a family friend who was arrested simply because the was in the house at the time of the raid. Giuseppe Conlon has since died in prison. Yet the victims of this grotesque frame-up are still in prison 11 years after the police raid.
There will of course now, rightly, be outrage over these false covinctions. All sorts of liberal sentiments will be expressed about "tragic miscarriages of justice' — as though that were any comfort to those whose lives have been ruined. A few 'rotten apples' may well be brought out.
But all this is to miss the point. The Birmingham six — and the Guildford four, and the Maguires, were framed up because the British state had to have victims. To carry through its repressive measures from the Prevention of Terrorism Act to the daily violence it carried out in the north of Ireland - the British state has to create an atmoshpere of intimidation and fear. It will find victims to fill that need.
For the British state in the North of Ireland founded on violence and repression can only be maintained by violence and repression. There will be no end to that violence, or to the horrific frame ups such as the Birmingham six, the Guildford four, and the Maguires until Britain gets out of Ireland Get those wrongly convicted out of jail. Get Britain out of Ireland. That must be the lesson drawn from this horrific frame up.