2 days ago
New forensic evidence identifies 1970s IRA bombers
Several prime suspects responsible for the Guildford pub attacks, and other
IRA
bombings and shootings in Britain between 1974-1976, have been identified, according to legacy investigators in
Belfast
.
Suspects for these attacks, now in their 70s and 80s, have been linked to the incidents by forensic evidence subjected to new scientific testing ordered by the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) in Belfast.
However, the Irish
Government
faces pressure to offer greater co-operation with legacy investigations into killings that took place during the Troubles.
Investigators have made progress in an investigation into the no-warning pub bombings in Guildford Surrey. The bombings occurred five days before the British October 1974 general election.
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The Horse and Groom bomb, believed to been left by a man and women posing as a courting couple, killed four soldiers from the nearby barracks and a civilian. The victims were aged between 17 and 21.
The ICRIR investigation focuses on a February 1974 M62 motorway coach bombing, in which the IRA placed 25 pounds of high explosive inside the luggage locker of a coach carrying off-duty soldiers and their families.
The bomb detonated just after midnight as the bus travelled to a British military base, killing nine soldiers and three civilians and injuring 38. It resulted in wrongful conviction and jailing of Judith Ward, who served 17 years before her conviction was quashed.
At the heart of the investigation by the ICRIR are the construction methods used to make the IRA bombs for the 1970s campaign in Britain.
'Due to very significant advances in forensic science since these atrocities half a century ago, we have developed some highly significant leads,' said the organisation's deputy commissioner Keith Surtees.
There is 'the real prospect of finally bringing' IRA members who were involved in some 70 bombings and shootings to justice, the former Metropolitan Police commander told The Irish Times.
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Forensic advances bring chance of new prosecutions for 1970s IRA bombings
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The ICRIR also wants the Irish Government to strengthen co-operation with its work. Investigators involved in Operation Kenova were unhappy with the help offered previously.
Separate An Garda Síochána and judicial liaison mechanisms to expedite requests for evidence and information that is held by the Garda, military intelligence in Dublin or other quarters is now sought.
'If you want to fully investigate cases like Narrow Water, a joint framework with the Irish Government is needed,' one official closely involved in the situation told The Irish Times, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Surtees was the chief investigator for Operation Kenova, which established the British agent code-named Stakeknife's involvement in 13 murders and 15 abductions of suspected fellow agents and informers.
Up to now, legacy investigations have largely, but not entirely, centred on prosecutions against British soldiers for alleged actions during the Troubles, so the new chapter in the ICRIR's work will be keenly noted in many quarters.
Following requests from family members, the ICRIR is also investigating the August 1979 ambush that killed 18
British army
soldiers in Warrenpoint, when the IRA detonated explosives from the southern side of the Border.
The Warrenpoint killings on northern side of Carlingford Lough, caused by two large roadside bombs at Narrow Water Castle at the Co Down beauty spot, constituted the deadliest attack on the British army during the Troubles.
Both bombs were deliberately set off half an hour apart by radio control by IRA men 200 yards across the lough on its southern bank. A British tourist was also killed on the shore in Co Louth by army gunfire.
The attack happened five hours after Lord Louis Mountbatten, uncle to the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was assassinated by an IRA bomb in his fishing boat in Mullaghmore, Co Sligo. Two family members and a 15-year-old boy also died.
