Republican internees’ Maze escape convictions quashed

Judges held that the men were not being lawfully detained at the time of their alleged breakouts.

The verdict is based on a similar outcome reached in a previous challenge by former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.

Appeals were mounted by Fra McCann, who represented the party as an MLA for West Belfast, and five others: Patrick Joseph Holden, Anthony John Hughes, James Joseph Walsh, Patrick Fitzsimmons and Francis Noel Johnston.

All of them had been detained under Interim Custody Orders (ICOs) as part of a policy of internment without trial introduced at the height of the Troubles.

In September 1975 they were convicted of escaping from lawful custody in connection with an incident the previous November.

Another republican prisoner, Hugh Gerard Coney, was shot dead during the bid to escape from the prison, also known at the time as Long Kesh internment camp.

But in May 2020 the Supreme Court in London quashed Mr Adams’ convictions for attempts to escape from lawful custody in 1973 and 1974.

Justices declared his ICO invalid because it had not been personally authorised by the Northern Ireland Secretary at the time, Willie Whitelaw.

Based on that determination, lawyers for the six men argued that the same legal flaw featured in their cases.

Their ICOs had all been signed by more junior representatives in the Northern Ireland Office.

Because they were never lawfully detained they cannot be guilty of the alleged offence, the Court of Appeal heard.

No submissions were made by the Public Prosecution Service in support of the safety of the convictions.

Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan ruled that the same invalidity applied in each case.

She confirmed: “We are satisfied that we should grant leave to appeal and quash the convictions.”

Outside court a solicitor for the six men, Padraig O Muirigh, explained that their cases replicated the issues of fact and law in Mr Adams’ appeal.

“Given the lacuna in the prosecution’s proofs, there was a compelling argument to be made on behalf of the internees that their convictions should also be quashed,” Mr O Muirigh said.

“The legality of the disastrous policy of Internment has been brought into fresh focus by this decision of the Court of Appeal.”