Birmingham Six's Hill accepts libel damages

A Belfast man who was wrongly convicted of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings accepted undisclosed libel damages today over a suggestion that there were grounds to believe he was guilty.

Paddy Hill, who spent 16 years in prison before his conviction was quashed in 1991, brought British High Court proceedings over a reference to him in 'An Anthology Of Modern Irish Poetry'.

In the preface to a selection of poems by Pearse Hutchinson – including 'British Justice dedicated to Mr Hill' – editor Wes Davis wrote that Mr Hill was “one of the six men accused, perhaps wrongly, of bombing a pub in Birmingham, England”.

Counsel Lucy Moorman told Mr Justice Eady in London that this was seriously defamatory of Mr Hill and extremely damaging to the reputation of the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation (MOJO) which he had set up.

“Mr Hill fought for years to establish his innocence and to rebuild his life and restore his good name.

“It is immensely frustrating and distressing for him that such an allegation appears in a book like the Anthology, which is intended to be authoritative and which may well be in circulation for many years to come.”

Ms Moorman said that Mr Davis and publisher Harvard University Press accepted that the allegation was without foundation.

They agreed to pay Mr Hill damages and his legal costs and had undertaken that the words complained of would be removed from any future editions.

Their counsel, Heather Emmerson, offered sincere apologies.