Coroner rules Birmingham pub bombing inquests can be resumed

The legal team representing the Justice for the 21 campaign says it will be a stain on the Government if families of the Birmingham Pub Bombing victims aren't given legal aid in the upcoming inquests.

Last month a coroner ruled there would be new inquests for victims of the 1974 bombings, but with the first hearings due in October, time is running out to pay for lawyers.

Today Hillsborough campaigner Louise Brookes met Pub Bombings campaigner Julie Hambleton in a show of solidarity. Chris Halpin reports.

Ex-West Midlands Police officer Bill Craig, whose 34-year-old brother James died in the attacks, said he believed the pub bombings investigation would be "another Hillsborough".

"It's very complex, and it'll be a long process, but in the end this will end up as another Hillsborough."

West Midlands Police Chief Constable Dave Thompson has said the force 'supports' today's decision from the coroner to resume the inquest into Birmingham pub bombings.

Campaigners broke down in tears outside a court in Birmingham as they celebrated the city coroner's decision to resume the pub bombings inquests.

Julie Hambleton, who lost her sister Maxine in the 1974 attacks, said it was a "seismic day" for the families of the 21 people killed.

She said she felt that "anything is possible" now in their campaign for the truth.

Addressing the bombers themselves - who have never been brought to justice - she urged them to speak up.

"If you have any level of humanity, and any moral compass, then by rights you should come forward," she added.

One of the men wrongly convicted of being behind the Birmingham pub bombings has welcomed a coroner's decision to resume inquests into the deaths of the 21 people killed.

Paddy Hill, one of the 'Birmingham Six' who spent 16 years behind bars for the attacks before their convictions were overturned, said the decision was a victory for the families of the victims.

He voiced scepticism over whether the inquests would reveal the "whole truth" about what happened, however, accusing police in Birmingham of "lying" over the decades since the bombings.

He went on to say he believed he knew the identities of those who placed the bombs around the city - and while a couple had since died, others were still walking free.

A campaigner who had called on the inquests into the deaths of the Birmingham pub bombing victims to be resumed has hailed a "momentous day".

Julie Hambleton lost her sister Maxine in the 1974 attack, and went on to found the Justice4the21 campaign group with her brother Brian.

Speaking before the hearing today, she said all the families wanted was "the truth".

Coroner Louise Hunt later ruled the inquests should be resumed.

Police were warned that Birmingham would be a target for an attack by IRA sources a week before the pub bombings which killed 21 people, a coroner's court has heard.

ITV News correspondent Mark Gough is there: