99 former prisoners launch legal action against NI Secretary

Almost 100 former prisoners have issued proceedings against the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, UTV can reveal.

Fifty nine internees and 40 ‘Blanket Protestors’ have launched the legal challenges, with the former group citing false imprisonment, and the latter alleging they were victims of institutional abuse while imprisoned in local facilities in the 1970s.

These cases fall on the desk of the new NI SOS Chris Heaton-Harris.

In response to a query from UTV regarding the revelation, a Northern Ireland Office statement simply read: "It would be inappropriate to comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”

Internment challenges

Almost 2,000 people, mostly men from nationalist areas, were jailed without charge between 1971 and 1975 as a result of the British Government’s policy of internment, which was a bid to clamp down on IRA activity.

Fifty nine of those interned are seeking damages for false imprisonment from the Northern Ireland Secretary, with 52 of the lawsuits being triggered this year.

It all comes after a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that prominent republican Gerry Adams should not have been convicted for escaping the Maze Prison in County Antrim, as his ‘Interim Custody Order’ was not properly considered by the then Secretary of State, William Whitelaw.

This decision paved the way for six others to have similar convictions in relation to the prison breakout overturned.

And, the precedent set should mean the dozens of claimants can obtain damages, according to the human rights solicitor leading the action, Padraig Ó Muirigh.

“The action arises from the Supreme Court judgment in May 2020 in R v Adams, which held that the British Secretary of State was lawfully required to consider the interim custody orders (ICO) used to detain them to make those orders lawful,” he said.

“What we have found through examination of these prisoners papers, which we have recently received, is that there is no evidence of consideration by the British Secretary of State. 

“And on many occasions he did not sign those ICOs as well - so on that basis we argue that their internment was unlawful so we have issued proceedings in respect of that.”

The west Belfast lawyer said there could be more similar action around the corner too.

“We are also waiting for a number of other prison papers, many, many dozens relating to this period as well, so it may well be that we issue further proceedings in relation to a number of other internees in the near future.”

Fra McCann, a former republican prisoner and retired Sinn Fein MLA, was in and out of prison during internment in the 1970s, and escaped the Maze Prison’s H-Blocks 39 years ago.

He told UTV Live that he remembers the time as a traumatic one, and that as some prisoners have died without ever finding out why they were jailed, and that he does not wish to be one of them.

“I was in and out of prison for most of the 70s. 

“And the area I live in, which is more commonly known as Divis Flats, was constantly patrolled by British soldiers - they had cameras all round it.

“You were constantly stopped. You were assaulted, insulted. 

“It was just a constant campaign of terror against the local community, where people could be taken off the street, brought to centres, beaten and then maybe released after hours or days.”

He continued: “There’s quite a lot of trauma, just even thinking back to that period of time. 

“Nobody has explained to me or any other internees for that matter, why they were arrested from their homes, why they were brought in and interned, and why they were denied their liberty.”

If any of the legal challenges are successful, public money will have to cover the costs of the compensation.

Mr McCann says, in response to that, that “people are entitled to justice”, and that “it’s only right that the state covers the costs.”

Blanket Protest lawsuits

40 former prisoners involved in the Blanket Protests have also launched legal action against the NI Secretary and the Prison Service of Northern Ireland, over alleged mistreatment and institutional abuse.

The term refers to a period between 1976 and 1981 when dozens of internees took a stand against conditions and treatment in the Maze Prison.

The British Government changed rules that meant paramilitary prisoners were no longer to be treated as prisoners of war. 

Pre-1976, internees did not have to wear uniforms or carry out prison work.

So, when the changes kicked in, those impacted refused to wear the prison supplied clothes, opting instead to cover their dignity with blankets.

An independent panel examining the treatment of protestors in local prisons during that time found “overwhelming evidence of torture, inhumane and degrading treatment directed at Republican prisoners”, with the frequency and severity of the abuses establishing “deliberate intent”.

Mr O’Muirigh said: “There was an independent, an international panel which made 47 findings in relation to that period and that prison struggle.

“The findings included physical abuse, psychological abuse, the use of food as punishment, and the inadequate medical care of prisoners, male and female, in the Armagh prison, in Long Kesh, and Crumlin Road Gaol as well.”

The Prison Service has confirmed receipt of the legal papers.

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