United Kingdom ยท England and Wales, Surrey
The Guildford Four (Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill, Patrick Armstrong and Carole Richardson): wrongly convicted, exonerated
Convicted of Murder arising from the October 1974 bombing of pubs in Guildford.
Convicted1975
SentenceLife imprisonment
Exonerated19 October 1989
How the conviction was overturnedCourt of appeal quashed the convictions as unsafe after fresh evidence on police integrity and the reliability of the confessions, Court of Appeal (Criminal Division), where the Crown did not argue to uphold the convictions1,2
What went wrong
- False confessions signed under heavy police pressure
- Official misconduct, with police interview notes extensively edited and police guidelines breached
From conviction to exoneration
- The four were arrested in late 1974 after the Guildford pub bombing.1,2
- Convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.1,2
- An appeal was dismissed, after members of an IRA unit had said in court in January 1977 that they carried out the bombings and that the four were innocent.1,2
- The Court of Appeal quashed the convictions as unsafe and the four were freed after a combined 60 years in prison.1,2
- Prime Minister Tony Blair apologised to the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven.1
Today
All four convictions were quashed in October 1989.
Sources
- The Irish Post, 13 facts about the Guildford Four
- Evidence Based Justice Lab, University of Exeter, Paul Hill