I’ll never forgive police who destroyed my life, says Conlon

GUILDFORD Four innocent Gerard Conlon has said he will never forgive British policemen who conspired to convict him for the 1974 pub bombings.

Mr Conlon admitted he began long-term therapy to help him recover from the 15 years he spent in prison for a crime he did not commit. In October 1989, he and three other people had their convictions quashed when serious flaws were found in the investigation by Surrey police.

Yesterday, Mr Conlon said he will never forget the torment he suffered.

“I went to London to go working and enjoy myself and escape what was happening in Belfast. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me,” he said.

“The thing I can never forgive is if the police had checked our backgrounds, they would know we would not be candidates for the IRA — and the type of horrific violence being used — we wouldn’t even have been acknowledged.”

Belfast-born Mr Conlon said he was psychologically scarred. He criticised the British government for not providing greater help for those wrongly convicted on charges related to the IRA’s 1970s bombing campaign.

Mr Conlon said the British government should have put as much effort into rebuilding ex-prisoners’ lives as they did “tearing them apart”.

“You suddenly find yourself from being happy-go-lucky and taking life as an adventure to being taken from your bed to an English cell and tortured.

“And, looking around, seeing your father in jail, your aunt in jail and your cousins in jail, it is a nightmare that still lingers until today,” he said.

Mr Conlon was speaking on RTÉ’s Tubridy show and said he was now in constant therapy which would “continue for a long time”.

His autobiography, Proved Innocent, inspired Jim Sheridan’s 1993 Oscar-nominated film In the Name of the Father.

Meanwhile, Paddy Joe Hill, a member of the Birmingham Six, was also interviewed about the similar miscarriage of justice which saw him and five others jailed for 16 years.

He revealed that, even today, he has never been properly questioned about the bombings in Birmingham and police pursued the easiest conviction instead of investigating who actually carried out the attacks.

After the bombings, which left 21 people dead and 160 injured, he had walked into the police station of his own accord after they appealed for people to come forward.

“I have never even been questioned about the Birmingham bombings, even now. I walked in of my own accord but I didn’t know those would be the last steps to freedom I would take for 16 years,” said Mr Hill, who now works for the Scottish Executive.