Chris Mullin’s exposure of the Birmingham Six’s wrongful conviction was only possible because he was able to protect his sources
It is a memorable photograph. Outside the Old Bailey on 14 March 1991 stand the Birmingham Six, free at last after 16 years in prison for a mass murder in which they played no part. At the centre of this happy band, scarf askew and beaming with pleasure and pride, is the man whose diligence as an investigative journalist and later MP has led to their victory in the court of appeal. Now, more than 30 years later, that same man, Chris Mullin, will himself be back at the Old Bailey on 23 February facing an action brought against him under the Terrorism Act of 2000 to make him reveal the sources of his information all those years ago.
The Birmingham Six were jailed for life in 1975 for an IRA bomb attack on two pubs the previous year, which killed 21 people and injured more than 200. It was a grim, unforgivable crime and understandably the police were anxious to nail those responsible. They swiftly arrested five men on their way to Ireland for a funeral and a sixth the following day. After days of brutal interrogation, four “confessed”, admissions that were immediately retracted once their violent ordeal ended. The government’s forensic scientist claimed that at least two of them had been in touch with the explosive nitroglycerine. That evidence was discredited by the time of the trial – many household products and notably the pack of cards with which the men had been playing on their train journey before their arrest gave similar results – but the Six were convicted and jailed for life.
Duncan Campbell is the former crime correspondent of the Guardian
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