A judge has overruled a coroner’s decision to ban the naming of an IRA unit alleged to have been responsible for killing 21 people in the 1974 Birmingham pub bomb atrocities.
Families of the victims murdered in the two explosions in the city centre said they hoped the judge’s decision would bring closer the possibility that the suspects would be named at a future inquest.
In July, the coroner, Sir Peter Thornton QC, ruled that the names of the alleged perpetrators would not be part of the framework of the new inquests.
But at the high court on Friday, Mrs Justice Sue Carr said: “We will quash the coroner’s decision.”
Julie Hamilton, whose sister Maxine was killed in the bombing, said it was “surely logical and rational” that as a result of the judge’s decision the IRA members involved could be named during the inquests.
“We are pleased about today’s ruling as the coroner’s original decision was simply irrational and devoid of logic. It brings the possibility to naming suspects closer now and we welcome that,” she said. “All we want is the truth. How hard can that possibly be?”
After the bombings, six Irish men were wrongly convicted of being responsible for the explosions.
The Birmingham Six spent 17 years in jail before they were freed in 1991. Their plight led to the establishment of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates alleged miscarriages of justice.
An investigative television programme by Granada TV’s World in Action team the year before named a number of men it alleged were the real bombers.
Paddy Hill, one of the Birmingham Six, has given his backing to the victims’ families and their campaign group, Justice4the21.
The group has fought for years to have inquisitions into the deaths reopened. It raised £40,000 in crowdfunding to pay for Friday’s judicial review.
