Guildford Four family to sue pub bomb police forces

Gerry Conlon, seen here with his sisters outside the Old Bailey, was freed in 1989

The sister of wrongly-jailed Gerry Conlon is to sue Surrey Police and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) amid claims he was tortured.

Bridie Brennan is suing the forces for conspiracy to wrongly arrest, detain, interrogate and charge her brother.

Mr Conlon served 15 years after he was jailed for the 1974 Guildford pub bombs which were later admitted by the IRA.

Surrey Police and the PSNI said they had not yet received official confirmation of the action.

A PSNI spokeswoman said: "As the matter is subject to ongoing legal proceedings, it would be inappropriate for the Police Service of Northern Ireland to make any comment at this time."

The Guildford pub bombs killed five, injured 65 and led to one of Britain's biggest miscarriages of justice when 11 people were wrongly jailed - the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven.

Mrs Brennan, who was 16 when her brother was arrested, said further details had emerged about ill treatment, adding: "They stripped him, left him naked, didn't give him food and drink.

"He had to put his hand down the toilet to drink the water."

She said for a few days after Mr Conlon's arrest, the family did not know where he was, but later discovered from a solicitor he had been beaten at Belfast's Springfield Road police station.

She said claims had emerged in the media that her father Guiseppe Conlon, one of the Maguire Seven who died in prison with tuberculosis, had been left outdoors in a wheelchair in winter.

"Nothing will ever take the pain away," she said. "My family suffers pain to this day."

The IRA blew up two pubs in Guildford on 5 October 1974

A statement from the family's solicitors, KRW Law, said intelligence shared between the Met Police, Special Branch, Surrey Police and the RUC led to Mr Conlon's detention - along with a confession by Paul Hill that named Mr Conlon, but was obtained under duress.

They said while Mr Conlon was detained in Belfast, he was beaten, subjected to wall-standing, deprived of sleep and food and subjected to harshing (loud shouting of abuse) and his family was threatened - treatment the firm compared to the case of The Hooded Men.

"Those responsible for these acts were police officers from the RUC and from Surrey Police," they said.

The lawyers said a judge-led inquiry showed Mr Conlon's arrest, detention and interrogation in Belfast and Surrey led to his conviction, but evidence heard by the inquiry remained closed. More than 700 files are retained.

The BBC has seen one memo showing the inquiry examined Met Police Special Branch intelligence on Mr Conlon and Mr Hill at a meeting on 20 July 1990.

Another inquiry file is headed "allegations of brutality and threats made against the Guildford Four", but in 2017 the BBC was told the file contained names of police officers and prison officers involved and releasing the information could put officers at risk of reprisal attacks.