Latest news with #GuildfordFour
Extra.ie
a day ago
- Politics
- Extra.ie
Kneecap member's legal team includes barrister who freed Birmingham Six
Kneecap member Mo Chara- who was formally charged with terrorism offences at a London court on Wednesday – has hired a crack defence team. His legal reps include the barrister who successfully defended the wrongfully convicted Birmingham Six bombers; a solicitor who acted for Paddy Jackson in the notorious 'rugby trial' and an international rights lawyer who argued on behalf of South Africa in the 'genocide' case against the state of Israel. The Northern Irish rapper's souped-up defence team can be considered as somewhat of an indicator of the gravity of the charges levelled against him which could carry a hefty term behind bars. Kneecap band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, leaves Westminster Magistrates' Court. Pic: James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock Four weeks ago, the Metropolitan Police announced that the 27-year-old performer had been charged under his real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh under the Terrorism Act on May 21 for 'displaying a flag in support of Hizballah, a proscribed organisation'. Subsequent to the charges, Kneecap announced that they would vehemently defend the charges. And with the conscription of the crack defence panel, it would appear that they intend to mount a robust defence in an effort to stave off jail time. The biggest hitter of the defence team is Guildford Four and Birmingham Six lawyer Gareth Peirce. Gareth Peirce (centre) at Westminster Magistrates' Court ahead of the court appearance of Kneecap band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara. Pic:Ms Peirce is often described as one of the UK's leading human rights lawyers. She represented the Guildford Four as they fought to prove their wrongful convictions over the IRA's 1974 Guildford pub bombings. The case was made into a film in 'In the Name of the Father', with Emma Thompson playing the lawyer. Ms Peirce, who also went on to represent WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during his fight against US extradition, is joined on Mo Chara's legal team by Belfast-based Darragh Mackin of Phoenix Law. Darragh Mackin (right) with Kneecap band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh (left), who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, arriving at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday morning. Pic: Benjamin Cremel/AFP via Getty Images Belfast-based solicitor Mr Mackin hit the headlines when he took on the case of former Irish rugby international star Paddy Jackson in the infamous trial that gripped the nation both North and South of the border. A one time star of the rugby world in 2017 Mr Jackson was charged with rape for which he was subsequently tried and cleared with a not guilty verdict after a protracted legal case in 2018. Paddy Jackson outside court in Belfast in February 2018. Pic:And beefing up the star-studded defence bench are three highly accomplished female members of the U.K. bar association. Brenda Campbell KC, Jude Bunting KC and Blinne Ni Ghralaigh KC have been drafted into what is set to be a highly contentious case. Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January 2024. Pic: Selman Aksunger/Anadolu via Getty Images Perhaps the most high-profile of the aforementioned legal bigwigs is Blinne Ni Ghralaigh KC, who last year was tasked by South Africa with presenting its 'genocide' case against Israel in the International Court of Human Rights.
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Daily Mail
As Lambeth loses case brought by local campaigners, and other councils face court showdowns... Is this the end of the road for the hated LTNs fleecing drivers and leaving our suburbs gridlocked?
As courtroom dramas go, it might not have matched the freeing of the Guildford Four or the conviction of murderer Dr Crippen. But thousands of south Londoners who five years ago found themselves suddenly barred from making local car journeys they had been undertaking for decades, greeted the judgment handed down by Deputy High Court Judge Jim Smith this month with something approaching euphoria.
Irish Examiner
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Cork Don Wycherley on playing Paddy Armstrong of the Guildford Four
Cork actor Don Wycherley can remember clearly where he was on the day that the Guildford Four were released from prison having been wrongfully convicted in 1975 at London's Old Bailey, of bombings carried out by the IRA. Wycherley, who is touring a one-man show on one of the four, Paddy Armstrong, was in a pub near St Patrick's Teacher Training College in Drumcondra celebrating his graduation from there with friends on October 19, 1989. 'On comes the telly with the news that the Guildford Four were getting out after fifteen years incarceration,' says Wycherley. Little did he know that he would take on the role of Armstrong rather than work full-time as a teacher. The play, Paddy: The Life & Times of Paddy Armstrong, was written by writer and documentary maker Mary-Elaine Tynan, Wycherley, and Fair City writer, Niamh Gleeson. (Tynan co-authored Armstrong's bestselling memoir, Life After Life.) It took a while to convince Wycherley to become involved in the one-man show. 'Mary-Elaine gave me the book to read. It was amazing, a roller coaster of a man's life. I used to see Paddy around Clontarf where he lives with his wife Caroline. [The couple have two children.] I live nearby. Paddy Armstrong of the Guildford Four. "I said that the book is amazing but the biggest problem I'd have doing a one-man show was the question as to why I'd be talking to an audience. I was kicking the can down the road. I thought the first draft of the play was good but it was too much like a summary of the book.' Wycherley was asked if he'd like to meet Armstrong. That sealed the deal regarding his involvement in the play. 'I first met Paddy in 2023. He's a very relaxed, funny, charismatic individual. I started calling to him on Saturday mornings. It wasn't difficult to get the stories out of Paddy. When he went a little dark, his default setting was to be humorous and to kind of evade the difficult questions. "It was his sense of humour that helped inform the play in many ways. "If we had just gone with the tough stuff that happened and the awful way his life went, people would get no relief. I don't think there would be as many people coming to the play. "What people have been saying is that it's an uplifting piece with huge highs and lows. Laughter is very much there. I'm glad we got to the essence of him. He is always looking for the gag. That's how I think he survived his time in prison. "There's only two of the four left, Paddy and Paul Hill. Paddy is certainly not bitter in terms of English people, and the way people reacted to what was being said by the police who concocted the evidence.' Wycherley (57), who is originally from Skibbereen, was first put on the stage by one of the teaching brothers at St Fachtna's De La Salle College. 'It was for a Chah and Miah skit. I remember fizzing up Coke to make it look like Guinness. I was supposed to be having a pint, talking about the topics of the day. I remember the clapping at the end of it and I thought that was interesting.' It was while teaching in another De La Salle school in Finglas that Wycherley was asked by the principal to put on a Christmas show. 'I really enjoyed that. It brought me back to the sense of joy I got from being on stage. I did a course in acting at weekends but I didn't like it because it was killing my social life.' However, when Wycherley saw that the Gaiety School of Acting was offering a full-time one year course in acting, he successfully auditioned for it. 'It was an itch I wanted to scratch. The principal said to me to go for it and that the job would be there if I wanted it after the year.' After starring in a play, Away Alone, at the Peacock Theatre, directed by Fionnuala Flanagan, the then artistic director of the Abbey Theatre, Garry Hynes, offered Wycherley and three other actors full time contracts. The die was cast and Wycherley has had a successful acting career, interspersed with subbing work as a teacher during lean times. "It worked out nicely for me. That said, other actors would be chasing Hollywood. At my age, I'm just chasing a good script,' says this actor, writer and sometime teacher. Paddy: The Life & Times of Paddy Armstrong is at the Everyman on May 30-31. See
Belfast Telegraph
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Actor Don Wycherley: ‘What was my worst job? Working on a site in London in 1984 for a vicious foreman who called me Pat'
The west Cork native is currently starring in a one-man show inspired by the memoir of Paddy Armstrong, one of the Guildford Four – who were wrongly convicted and imprisoned in England for bombings in 1974 committed by the IRA. Wycherley is also a co-writer of the show, called Paddy: The Life and Times of Paddy Armstrong. It will be performed in theatres around NI in September.
Telegraph
05-04-2025
- Telegraph
Letby barrister: US death row inmates have better shot at freedom than wrongfully convicted Britons
Mark McDonald is sitting in the Great Hall refectory at Lincoln's Inn, demolishing a jerk chicken, surrounded by a 'Who's Who' of barristers and judges. Since taking on the case of Lucy Letby, the barrister has been rocking boats in the legal establishment with a string of press conferences protesting the nurse's innocence and is refusing to keep a low profile. 'I have a black-tie reception here tonight with Lady Justice Thirlwall,' he says, speaking of the judge conducting the public inquiry into how Letby could have been stopped. 'Let's see if she talks to me.' Mr McDonald believes keeping the case in the public eye is the only way to beat a system that is wholly stacked against those who are wrongly convicted. For him, the mills of justice are not just grinding slowly but are often coming to a complete standstill. Letby is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted of killing seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016. She has already been in jail for five years. This week, Mr McDonald submitted a 700-page report from a panel of world-leading experts to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which deals with potential miscarriages of justice. The experts insist there were no murders or attacks, simply a perfect storm of poor care, prematurity and natural illness. The Telegraph is now calling for the CCRC to send the case back to the Court of Appeal. 'If I cannot prove, with all these experts, that these convictions are unsafe, then the criminal justice system is in a poor state of affairs,' said Mr McDonald. 'What it would mean is that if you're innocent and wrongly convicted in this country, you've got no chance. 'I spent a lot of time working in America with inmates on death row, and I am reaching the conclusion that if I was wrongly convicted I'd rather be an American than an English person. 'They have an effective court of appeal, because if they get it wrong someone dies. We all thought things would get better after the Birmingham Six or the Guildford Four. But it didn't, it actually got worse.' If Mr McDonald is not toeing the line like a traditional barrister it is because he isn't one. He grew up on an inner-city council estate in Birmingham and left school at 16 to become a sheet-metal worker. He later trained as an operating theatre assistant, working for the NHS for 14 years, which he says gave him first-hand experience of how things can go wrong in hospitals. He had to put himself through night school to gain the A-levels needed to study law. In 2007 he founded the London Innocence Project, a non-profit working to exonerate those wrongfully convicted and helped found Amicus, a charity working to represent inmates on death row in the US. After working in Palestine with the Bar Human Rights Committee he founded the Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, and made an unsuccessful bid to become MP for Stoke in 2019. He recently adopted two children with his wife Sarah Macken, the chief executive of Telespazio UK, who herself has stood as a Conservative candidate in Wolverhampton and East Ham. The Letby case is a natural fit for Mr McDonald, who is also defending Ben Geen, a nurse serving 30 years for killing two of his own patients and harming 15 others at Horton General Hospital in Banbury in 2003 and 2004. He has also fought hard to clear Michael Stone, who was convicted of the murders of Lin and Megan Russell and the attempted murder of Josie Russell in Chillenden, Kent in 1996. Serial killer Levi Bellfield has confessed to the murders on two occasions, giving explicit details of the attacks, and a case review is ongoing. But Stone is still in prison despite there being no supporting forensic or witness evidence. Similarly, nobody saw Letby do anything. Doctors became suspicious because she was on duty when each of the babies collapsed or died. ' There was no direct evidence, no forensic evidence, no CCTV evidence, no motive, no post-mortems identifying any issues and everything that happened at the time was seen to be a natural death,' said Mr McDonald. 'This is not the case where something went wrong at trial and the convictions are unsafe because of a problem with the way that the jury were directed, or something like that. 'This is a case where no crime was actually committed, which means she's innocent.' Since her conviction, dozens of doctors, nurses, statisticians, law experts and scientists have come forward to criticise the way evidence was presented to the jury, including Lord Sumption, the former Supreme Court judge, who last weekend said Letby was 'probably innocent'. Letby has already been denied the leave to appeal on two occasions, and the barrister is anticipating a lengthy review process. But he believes if the case is referred back to the Court of Appeal, the prosecution will have a far tougher job than last time. His panel of experts includes Prof Neena Modi, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Prof Mikael Norman, the founder of the International Society of Evidence-Based Neonatology, and Prof Helmet Hummler, the senior medical director for the European Foundation for Care of Newborn Infants. 'They're going to have to get experts of a far better quality than they had at trial to match that of the experts that have come forward because I have 24 of them, and I will call all of them because we have to expose what's gone wrong here,' he said. 'I mean, if you're a neonatologist working at Leicester Royal Infirmary would you want to go up against this lot? Because I'll fly them over from Tokyo and Sweden and Germany and Canada. I will call them all.' Chester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service argue that Letby's original defence team could have called experts at her trial to make all the points that are now being raised. Mr McDonald says it is not so simple. Experts are frightened to get involved in contentious cases, particularly baby killings, and some have been referred to the General Medical Council for speaking up in Letby's defence. 'In these types of cases you cannot use experts in England, they won't go against the establishment,' he argues. 'So you have to go to North America, you have to go to mainland Europe and unless you know that you are always going to get the wrong experts. They will do a report for you but they will always ultimately agree with the prosecution.' It is notable that while Mr McDonald has been the public face of the campaign, Letby herself has remained largely in the background. She has never spoken about the case outside of the trial and police interviews and has refused requests to meet or correspond with journalists. 'She has read every report and she is on top of this completely, and she is feeling more hopeful,' he said. 'I've not gone down the path of talking about her as a person because that's what happened throughout the trial, they focused on her rather than focusing on the evidence. 'The evidence is she was one of the most experienced nurses on that unit. She loved her job. She worked all the hours God sends and did extra shifts. 'So yes, she was always there because that is what she did, that was her job, and yes she got the sickest babies because she was asked to look after the sickest babies, because she was one of the most experienced nurses.' He added: 'I think one of the most concerning things is there but for the grace of God go any of us. 'Your child falls over and you take it to A&E and you get someone saying 'well I think this is a non-accidental injury', your child dies in the middle of the night and someone is saying you did it. ' Nurses don't want to work any more and frankly, I don't blame them.' The CCRC can only refer cases to the Court of Appeal if there's a 'real possibility' that a conviction or sentence will be overturned. But the Law Commission is consulting on whether that bar is too high and looks set to recommend that reviewers should focus on their own view, rather than trying to predict the court's response. The dial may be about to shift in Letby's favour. The changes could not come soon enough for Mr McDonald. 'The criminal Court of Appeal needs massive reform, and I believe that there are innocent people in prison who are being failed by our system,' he said. 'There is still a reluctance to overturn what a jury has decided. 'I'm hoping now that in Letby they will see what I think many people in the country now see, that this is a concerning, unsafe conviction that needs to be overturned.'
