Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

452 A Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions
confused; the ‘memory distrust syndrome’ had begun to set in. After having
spent about two days in Brixton Prison on Remand, she felt the pressure easing
off and she began to gain complete confidence in her own recollection of events,
particularly with regard to her innocence.
Subsequent Developments
It was alleged in a Panorama programme in 1990 that at the trial of the
Guildford Four in 1975 and at the appeal in 1977 the prosecution withheld from
the defence crucial forensic and alibi evidence, which might very well have altered
the outcome of the trial had it been known to the jury. The ‘suppressed’
forensic evidence linked the bombs that exploded in Guildford and Woolwich to
several other bombs, which had exploded both before and after the Guildford
and Woolwich bombs. It strongly indicated that all the bombs, 32 in total, had a
‘common source of supply, information and expertise’. Furthermore, it pointed
to the operation of a single IRA Unit operating on the mainland of Britain. Some
of the members of this Unit were known to the police and had been identified
through fingerprints that had been discovered on bombs that had failed to explode.
These had no known associations with the Guildford Four. The remaining
unidentified fingerprints were not those of the Guildford Four, nor were they
ever questioned about the other bombings.
The other ‘new’ evidence allegedly suppressed by the prosecution relates to
Gerry Conlon’s alibi. He had always maintained that at the time of the Guildford
bombings he was in a Roman Catholic hostel in Kilburn, London, which is over
30 miles away from Guildford. At his trial it was argued by the prosecution
that Conlon’s alibi lacked corroboration. In fact, according to the Panorama
programme, two independent witnesses had corroborated his statements to the
police, but crucial evidence from one witness was withheld from the defence by
the prosecution.
THE BIRMINGHAM SIX
On 21 November 1974, two public houses in Birmingham were bombed by
the IRA. Twenty-one people were killed. Later that same night four Irishmen
(Gerry Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power & John Walker) were
stopped for questioning as they were boarding a ferry to Ireland. They were
asked to accompany the police to Morecambe police station for forensic tests.
They happened to mention that one of their friends (Patrick Hill) had been travelling
with them. Hill, who had already boarded the ferry, was arrested. The five
men were subjected to a Greiss test by Dr Frank Skuse, a Home Office scientist.
The method, named after the chemist who discovered it, was at the time thought
to be a foolproof way of detecting nitroglycerine, which is a substance commonly
found on people’s hands if they have been handling explosives. Nitroglycerine
was allegedly found on the hands of two of the six men (Power & Hill).
Dr Skuse told the police that he was 99% sure that two of the men had recently
handled commercial explosives (Mullin, 1989). The five men were travelling