Republican News · Thursday 30 January 1997

[An Phoblacht]

Speculation as Whitemoor trial collapses

BY LIAM O COILEAIN

Last week's collapse of the trial of six prisoners, five of them Irish, charged with breaking out of Whitemoor Prison in September 1994, has fuelled rather than ended speculation about what really happened.

In the wake of the collapse, defence barristers for Liam O Duibhir, Liam McCotter, Peter Sherry, Paul Magee, Danny McNamee and Andy Russell challenged the entire prosecution case. They asserted that prison officers and not prisoners had cut through the prison fences.

In a further twist, just days later, English police agreed to reopen their files on the disappearance of Peter Curran, a prison officer at Whitemoor who vanished six months after the escape attempt. It also emerged that another prison officer, Marcia Whitehurst, died on the day the trial collapsed when her car plunged into a ditch. She had been due to give evidence.

The trial ended at Woolwich Crown Court in London on Thursday, 23 January, when Judge Maurice Kay ruled that an article, published in the previous day's London Evening Standard had prejudiced the defendants' chance of receiving a fair trial. A similar situation had already led to the trial collapsing the previous September. Evening Standard editor, Max Hastings, offered an ``unqualified, unconditional apology'', claiming that the mistake was a result of ``human error''. He may yet face contempt charges.

According to legal advice the six men cannot be retried but Home Secretary Michael Howard has indicated that he is considering a change to the law to prevent trials collapsing due to prejudicial media coverage. He challenged the defence team to come up with new evidence to back up their claims. On Monday 28 January, Michael Mansfield QC said that he would be handing new evidence to Howard. He pointed to the involvement of ``forces'' who wanted to ensure the IRA cessation of 1994 would not succeed.

Mansfield, who appeared for Liam McCotter during the trial, was adamant that the fence was cut by prison staff and that the equipment used in the escape attempt had also been brought into the prison by staff. During the truncated trial he and other defence barristers had heard contradictory evidence from different members of prison staff. The prison governor even gave evidence that he had misled the Woodcock Inquiry into the escape. The prison authorities had claimed to have no surveillance tape pictures of the fence being cut, nor of the men firing any shots. There was also no footage available of the aftermath following the men's recapture, despite a battery of cameras outside the prison perimeter. The men say they were assaulted by prison staff when recaptured. Their legal representatives have also made representations that the six men, no longer remand prisoners, be removed from the restrictive conditions of Belmarsh Special Secure Unit for health reasons.

In a further development, on Monday 28 January, English police announced that they are to reopen the file on the disappearance of prison officer Peter Curran. He had been suspended from duty two days previously on charges of supplying toiletries to prisoners. ``I refuse to believe that the Prison Service have not considered the implications of corruption being uncovered which may lead to the discovery of something serious having happened to him,'' said his wife, Christine, backed up by Tory MP Ian Bruce, who also believes there may be a link with the escape. ``When he went missing Peter was in fear of his life,'' she said. ``Maybe he had overheard something he shouldn't have. I believe he was going to meet someone.''

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