Unionist population is the victim of a ferocious two-pronged attack from strengthen the sectarian Ulster Defence Regiment and Royal Ulster Conmethods. which three people died-threatened Unionist population if any of their armed patrols were arrested by the Combined with the threat of Catholics within a revamped Orange Social Democratic and Labour Party departmen The tragi-comic proceedings at Lancaster Crown Court, where nine rishmen were accused of taking part in the Birmingham pub bombings, reached their invitable conclusion last week. Six of the accused were jailed for life and two for nine years.
However, one defendant, James Kelly, only got nine months. From an extreme Protestant background, he claimed he was "infiltrating' the IRA to gain information about its activities for the police. He had then been too scared" to get out of the bombings. Although not allowed to turn "Queen's evidence, the acceptance of Kelly's role as a provocateur clearly indicated the British state's acceptance of such But Kelly wasn't the only provocateur around. On the night of the bombing Kenneth Littlejohn, on the run from Dublin's Mountjoy Prison and a self-confessed infiltrator of the IRA, arrived at the home of the prosecution's star witness in Birmingham, a certain Thomas Watt. Watt wasn't only a workmate of two of the accused, Walker and Melkenny -he is also a supporter of the National Front.
Watt gave some startling evidence. Walker had sketched him a bonb to prove he was a member of the IRA; admitted going to Ireland for 'IRA training'; asked him where to buy alarm clocks for the November bombs; and told him when bombs were going to go off in the Midlands. And the police knew all this because Watt had kept them constantly informed!
A third fact that merged-which even the judge had to admit-was that the accused had been severely beaten up. The judge blamed 'the cronies in the prison service' -Winson Green prison has seen the death of six inmates in the past few months-but on Dr Harwood's evidence that the wounds were already twelve hour old when he examined the men, the police would have been responsible. In all likelihood the men were beaten up twice; but Harwood's evidence would be consistent with the defendants' claim that their confessions were beaten out of them.
The Lancaster trial has proved once again that in cases connected with reland the British Courts cover up more than they reveal-about police brutality, the use of agent provocateurs, and the involvement of the British State's dirty tricks