Blair apologies over Guildford convictions

Wednesday, 9 February 2005 12:00 AM

The Prime Minister has issued a public apology to the 11 men and women wrongly convicted of involvement in the Guildford pub bombings.

Tony Blair said he was "very sorry" that the families were subject to "such an ordeal and such an injustice" and said they deserved to have their names fully and publicly exonerated.

Eleven people were wrongly convicted for involvement in planting the bombs which killed seven people and left more than 100 injured.

Gerry Conlon, Paddy Armstrong, Paul Hill and Carole Richardson were arrested in 1974 and jailed over the blast at the Horse and Groom pub in Guildford. They later became known as the Guildford Four.

The other seven were arrested because of a family connection to Mr Conlon and came from either the Conlon family or the Maguire family.

The sentences of the Guildford Four were quashed in 1989. Then, in 1991, the sentences of the Maguire Seven were also overturned by the Court of Appeal.

Mr Blair said that there had been a terrible miscarriage of justice and he recognised trauma the conviction had caused and the "stigma that wrongly attaches to them till this day".

All 11 deserved to be "completely and fully exonerated", the Prime Minister concluded.

Mr Blair made the statement to the camera directly after leaving the chamber following Prime Minister's Question Time.

The families of those arrested were present in the Commons for PMQ and there had been a strong hint that a public apology would have been made in the chamber of the Commons - if a question on the issue was asked.

But, the Speaker Michael Martin decided not to call the nationalist MP expected to ask the question.

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