An event marking the 50th anniversary of the series of landmark wrongful convictions known as the ‘Irish cases’ – the Birmingham Six, Guildford Four and Maguire Seven – will take place at the House of Commons next month. The event is organised by All-Party Parliamentary Group on Miscarriages of Justice and is in memory of Paddy Joe Hill of the Birmingham Six who died in December. Paddy Hill spent 16 years in prison wrongly jailed following the Birmingham pub bombings and devoted the rest of his life to tirelessly campaigning on the part of wrongfully convicted prisoners.

Paddy Joe Hill, Hugh Callaghan, Richard McIlkenny, Gerry Hunter, Billy Power and Johnny Walker were convicted for the murder of 21 people, as a result of bombs placed in two Birmingham pubs in November 1974, in what was the worst attack on the British mainland since the Second World War. The six walked out of the Old Bailey as free men in 1991. Their release came hard on the heels of a series of scandals: the convictions of the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven, in 1975 and 1976 respectively, for the Guildford pub bombings of October 1974, were quashed in 1989 and 1991. In Guildford, the IRA had detonated two bombs at two pubs popular with troops stationed at the local barracks. Four soldiers and one civilian were killed. A further 65 people were wounded. Judith Ward had her conviction quashed in 1992 and was released from prison having served 17 years after being wrongly convicted for the M62 coach bombing which killed 12.

Confidence on the part of the British public in the criminal justice system was shattered by serial revelations of police corruption, confessions beaten out of innocent suspects, followed by years of judicial cover-up. The day the Birmingham Six walked out of the Old Bailey as free men, there was political acceptance that the criminal justice system had to change. Kenneth Baker, the then Home Secretary, announced what was to be the first Royal Commission of a Conservative government which ultimately led to the establishment of the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

‘Fifty years on, the wrongful imprisonment of the Birmingham Six remains a stark reminder of the deep injustices in our legal system and the urgent need for modern reform. Their case exposed shocking failures – failures that cost six innocent men 16 years of their lives,’ said Kim Johnson MP. ‘As chair of the APPG on Miscarriages of Justice, I am committed to ensuring these lessons are never forgotten and that no one else suffers injustice as grave as this. We will forever honour their struggle, reflect on the ongoing fight for justice, and remain steadfast in our pursuit of a fairer legal system.’

‘Paddy Hill was a force of nature when it came to injustice,’ commented Cathy Molloy, former chief exec of the organisation that Hill set up on his release, MOJO, to help the wrongly convicted. ‘He would shout from the rooftops, wanting everyone to know that lessons have not been learned since he and his five friends were wrongfully accused, convicted and imprisoned for the Birmingham Pub Bombings despite the setting up of the Criminal Cases Review Commission.’

‘Paddy was passionate about miscarriages of justice as he did not want anyone to go through the same trauma that he did. He was angry and extremely vocal about the failures in the justice system. Paddy has looked after so many miscarriages of justice over the years, welcoming them into his home as they had nowhere else to go, as families had become broken due to their wrongful imprisonment.  Why did Paddy do this?  As a free man or women they needed an address. Paddy provided this for so many. He was the most amazing, kind hearted, compassionate, caring man underneath the angry exterior. He spoke the truth whether you liked it or not.’
Cathy Molloy on Paddy Hill

• Event: March 5, 2025 at the House of Commons at 530PM

• Panel: Patrick Maguire, of the so-called Maguire Seven; Chris Mullin, former MP and author of Error of Judgment; lawyers Alastair Logan OBE, Michael Mansfield KC; Gareth Peirce; and film maker Ros Franey

• Tribute to Paddy Hill: Cathy Molly of MOJO

• This is a rescheduled event and those who confirmed attendance previously have a place. Consequently, we only have a small number of tickets available and interest is likely to be high. If you are interested in attending, email sam@futurejustice.org.uk

The event on March 5 will be panel event featuring lawyers, campaigners and journalists involved at the time in exposing a series of devastating miscarriages of justice and discuss whether today’s justice system is any more able or willing to get to grips with injustice.

It will include Patrick Maguire who was just 13 years old when he was arrested at his home in west London along with his mother, Anne Maguire, her husband Paddy and four other members of his family in December 1974. He was the youngest of the Maguire Seven, an entire family living in Kilburn who, the prosecution alleged, were running an IRA bomb-making unit from their kitchen.

You can read an interview with Patrick Maguire on the Justice Gap here: ‘I lived in a very colourful world as a kid, 1970s flares and whatever,’ he says. ‘It went from colour to black and white overnight.’

It’s not the system that’s wrong, it’s the bastards on the bench
The event is in memory of Paddy Hill – a vociferous critic of the reforms introduced as a result of the wrongful imprisonment of him and many others which he called a ‘bastardisation’ of the original proposals.

The government ‘only did half the job’, Hill told the Justice Gap in 2016 (here); arguing it should have designed a system truly independent of the courts as was recommended by the likes of the human rights group JUSTICE. ‘Our criminal justice system is probably one of the best in the world. It’s not the system that’s wrong. It is the bastards who sit on the bench who are indoctrinated into preserving the status quo.’

The last interview Hill did with the Justice Gap was in 2018 together with Rob Brown who spent 25 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Hill argued then that problems at the CCRC meant that commentators failed to understand deeper problems with the courts.  ‘The Court of Appeal never looks at the full picture,’ he said. ‘They look at the bits and pieces. That is no way to look at a case. You need to look at all the evidence. They are there to uphold the conviction and uphold the so-called integrity of British judicial system. The system is supposed to the fairest in the world – it’s not the system, it is the people that administer it. They don’t live in the same world. They live in the ivory towers.’

Hill helped many miscarriages of justice over the years. He recalled how he had first met Brown 30 years earlier in Wormwood Scrubs around the time of the Birmingham Six’s first appeal – Brown had then been in prison then for 10 years for the murder of Annie Walsh. ‘We heard about each other through the grapevine when we were being shifted from jail to jail,’ Hill recalled. ‘I heard he was innocent and that he had been fighting his case for years. When I got out I said I would do something. Of course, it took another 10 fucking years.’

When Rob Brown left prison, all he had was £46 and a train ticket to Glasgow where his dying mother lived. Paddy Hill met him. ‘All I had was a black bag for my possessions,’ Brown recalled. ‘He picked me up at the jail.’

According to Paddy Hill this arrangement came about at the suggestion of the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Justice Taylor. ‘I got a phone call three weeks before he was released on the Friday from his office,’ he claimed. Rob Brown died in April last year.

‘What this guy has done for miscarriages of justice and their families, he deserves a knighthood. Paddy should get the recognition he deserves. If he was doing it for the system, he’d get the recognition… I have no doubt he would tell them where to shove it.’
Rob Brown on Paddy Hill

The Justice Gap ran a number of interviews with Paddy Hill over the years. His anger never diminished. ‘I was described by a number of people who interviewed me as the angriest person they have ever interviewed. I think I have got a fucking right to be angry. I walked into a police station of my own free will to be eliminated from inquiries – and it took me 16 and a half years to get out. I was happily married with six kids. I lost everything.’