(1) Ronan Kerr, a twenty-five year old Catholic, was killed by a bomb in Omagh on April 2, the first such police casualty for some time. His murder provoked outrage and sparked condemnation across the board.
(2) Assizes were replaced by Crown Courts in 1972.
(3) On January 20, 1981, Bruce George Peter Lee (the Hull Arsonist) pleaded guilty at Leeds Crown Court to ten charges of arson and twenty-six counts of manslaughter. His convictions relating to
the Wensley Lodge fire were quashed on appeal. I have discussed this case at some length elsewhere.
(For the record, I was actually in the courtroom when Lee was sentenced).
(4) The Times, February 11, 1969, page 10; see also May 20, 1969, page 15.
(5) As in the case of George Davis, which I have discussed elsewhere.
(6) Black bloc alludes to the style of dress of militant demonstrators – in particular black clothing and concealed or partially concealed faces. I have uploaded this video to Archive.Org at this url.
(7) This tragic, vulnerable man was framed for the murder of an eleven year old girl by a shabby conspiracy of a corrupt police officer, forensic scientist and prosecutor who between them suppressed evidence that proved he was not the killer. He was gaoled for life in 1976, but cleared in 1992.
A half-hearted attempt was made to bring his tormentors to book, but in April 1995, Stipendiary Magistrate Jane Hayward stayed the prosecution against former Chief Superintendent Richard Holland and forensic scientist Alan Outteridge. The grounds were the length of time since the trial, the deaths of a number of witnesses who part in the trial, and “The loss of a number of documents vital to the trial”. * In other words, they framed this poor guy, covered up their treachery for sixteen years, and then argued they would not receive a fair trial due to the delay. Unreal.
* TEARS FOLLOW SHOCK ‘NO TRIAL’ RULING, published in the ROCHDALE OBSERVER, No 12,844, Wednesday 3 May 1995, page 1.
(8) In the original, my postcode was duplicated underneath the recipient’s. I noticed this shortly after printing it out, but wanted to get the letter in the post and get home quick before it rained. As I’ve said many times before, proof-reading is a pastime best undertaken with two pairs of eyes.
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