Confession in Guildford Four case 'accurate': Former police chief says he made shorthand record of interview on planting of pub bomb
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Your support makes all the difference.THE former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Peter Imbert, said yesterday that his record of one of the Guildford Four confessing to planting a pub bomb which killed five people was 'as accurate as one could humanly make it'.
Sir Peter was in the witness box at the Old Bailey to assist three former Surrey police officers accused of perverting the course of justice by lying under oath.
The prosecution alleges that notes of an interview with Patrick Armstrong, which the former officers said were written contemporaneously, were in fact written up later from roughly typed notes.
Sir Peter told the jury that at the time of the Guildford pub bombs, in October 1974, he was a detective superintendent in the Bomb Squad. He liaised with Surrey Police when its officers made arrests for the bombings at the Horse and Groom and Seven Stars public houses.
Sir Peter said he went to Guildford to interview Paul Hill about a bomb thrown into a pub in Woolwich, south-east London, in November 1974, which had killed two people. He said Mr Hill admitted going on the mission but claimed that Mr Armstrong had thrown the bomb.
Sir Peter said he later interviewed Mr Armstrong after he had confessed his part in the Guildford bombings to Surrey police. Sir Peter, who wrote shorthand, recorded the interview in which Mr Armstrong admitted going with Carole Richardson into the Horse and Groom and planting the bomb under an alcove seat.
Sir Peter said his shorthand record of the confession was 'as accurate as one could humanly make it', and there was no use or threat of violence. He said Mr Armstrong also admitted doing reconnaisance for Woolwich, but denied doing that bombing.
Former Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Style, 59, former Detective Sergeant John Donaldson, 57, and former Detective Constable Vernon Attwell, 52, all deny perverting the course of justice.
The Guildford Four - Mr Armstrong, Mr Hill, Ms Richardson and Gerard Conlon - were given life sentences in 1975, but released in 1989 after their convictions were quashed.
Sir Peter said in an interview with Ms Richardson she repeated her confession to her part in the Guildford bombing. He said he also saw Mr Conlon, but he said he had an alibi.
However, Sir Peter said the day after the Four's convictions Mr Conlon asked to see someone from the Bomb Squad. He went hoping Mr Conlon 'was going to tell us a lot about the IRA. Our hope was fulfilled. He went into considerable detail . . .'
A week later, in a two-hour interview secretly tape recorded, Mr Conlon gave more information. The court was told the tape was not used in the Four's 1977 appeal because it was too prejudicial to the other three.
The case resumes today.
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