Birmingham pub bombings: Court overturns coroner's ruling
Relatives of victims mounted a legal challenge calling for the inquests to consider who carried out the attacks that left 21 dead.
Friday 26 January 2018 19:51, UK
Families of victims of the Birmingham pub bombings said 鈥渃ommon sense has finally prevailed鈥� after a coroner's decision to restrict the scope of inquests into their deaths was overturned.
A judicial review has ordered Sir Peter Thornton to reconsider his ruling that the identity of those responsible for the 1974 atrocity should not form part of his inquiry.
The coroner’s decision had prompted many relatives of those killed to consider boycotting the new inquests into the attacks, which left 21 people dead and more than 200 injured.
A group of Irishmen known as the Birmingham Six were jailed in 1975 over the bombings at the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town pubs but the convictions were quashed on appeal in 1991.
Delivering her ruling on the inquests, Mrs Justice Carr said: "We are minded to quash the coroner's decision which excluded the perpetrator issue and remit the case so as to enable him to reconsider the decision."
Julie Hambleton, whose sister Maxine died in the bombings, welcomed the ruling and said the inquests - which were adjourned in 1975 and reopened in 2016 after a long-running campaign - would be a "mockery" without their scope being widened.
She also thanked members of the public who helped pay for the legal challenge, which cost almost £40,000.
Ms Hambleton, the spokeswoman for victims' campaign group Justice4the21, told reporters: “Common sense has finally prevailed.
"We would like to thank Lord Justice Simon and Mrs Justice Carr for hearing our appeal and for asking the coroner to go away and ask himself another question, and that question is 'Who murdered our loved ones?'
"Twenty-one people were murdered en masse 43 years ago. People forget that there are murderers out there walking free on our streets, either in the United Kingdom, in Ireland or elsewhere.
"We are here, having to fight the very people who are meant to represent us - to give us truth, justice and accountability.
"We truly hope that the coroner will now reconsider... and realise that without the perpetrators in scope, the inquest will make a mockery of our justice system.
"We would hope and pray that the coroner makes the common sense decision."
A self-confessed former IRA member Michael Hayes claimed last year he defused a third bomb placed outside a Barclays' bank on the night of the Birmingham attacks but refused to comment on whether he planted the other explosives.
A spokesman for the inquests said: "The coroner is committed to ensuring that the inquests start as soon as possible but now wishes to take some time to consider carefully the judgment handed by the High Court and its impact on the future progress of the inquests."