Belfast man Liam Holden's estate to get £350k damages after violent waterboarding over soldier death

The estate of a west Belfast man subjected to violent waterboarding interrogation techniques in obtaining a false confession to killing a British soldier is to receive a further £350,000 in damages, a High Court judge ruled on Friday.

Mr Justice Rooney held that Liam Holden was unlawfully detained, hooded and had a gun pointed at his head by members of the Parachute Regiment intent on getting him to wrongly admit to shooting Private Frank Bell more than 50 years ago.

He said: “I conclude that the plaintiff was exposed to humiliation and degradation and that the soldiers behaved in a high-handed, insulting, malicious and oppressive manner.”

Mr Holden, who died last year at the age of 68, was the last man in Northern Ireland sentenced to hang.

The death penalty was commuted to life in prison before a 40-year fight to clear his name resulted in his murder conviction being quashed in 2012.

He had previously been awarded £1m for losses suffered due to the miscarriage of justice.

Before his death, Mr Holden brought a separate claim for damages against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for alleged misfeasance in public office, assault, battery and torture.

In October 1972 he was arrested following the shooting of Private Bell in the Springfield Avenue area of west Belfast.

An 18-year-old chef at the time, Mr Holden was taken to a military post at Blackmountain school where he said paratroopers deployed banned interrogation techniques.

Soldiers pinned him to the floor and placed a folded towel over his face, the court heard.

According to his account the repeated torture methods left him fearing that he was drowning.

In evidence Mr Holden said: "They started pouring a bucket of water slowly through the towel.

"The first thing I felt was the cold, then trying to breathe and then sucking water in through my mouth and up my nose.”

He described being revived and slapped about the face while soldiers held him by the armpits.

Up to four questioning and waterboarding sessions were allegedly carried out.

He was then hooded and taken to the Glencairn estate, notorious at the time as an area where loyalist paramilitaries dumped murdered Catholics.

A gun was put to his head as the soldiers warned he would be shot if he didn't confess to killing Private Bell, Mr Holden contended.

At that point he agreed to a "cock and bull story" about carrying out the shooting and dumping the gun afterwards.

A forensic psychiatrist who examined Mr Holden in 2016 said he described being plagued by nightmares more frightening than any real–life experience.

During their sessions the plaintiff recalled seeing the face of the soldier who allegedly tortured him as part of the recurring, unwanted thoughts.

He also spoke about having the gun tapped against the side of his forehead, adding: "I can still feel it." 

The MoD defended the action by denying liability.

However, Mr Justice Rooney held that Mr Holden’s confession statement had been obtained through ill-treatment and unlawful acts of violence.

“It is my decision that the plaintiff was subjected to waterboarding; he was hooded; he was driven in a car flanked by soldiers to a location where he thought he would be assassinated; a gun was put to his head, and he was threatened that he would be shot dead,” he said.

Mr Holden genuinely believed he was going to be killed, according to the judge. 

“Hooding of the plaintiff, in the circumstances as alleged, constitutes inhuman and degrading treatment in breach of Article 3 of the (European Convention on Human Rights),” he found.

The court heard damages were necessary for the treatment Mr Holden was exposed to during his unlawful questioning.

“A towel was placed on his face and then water was poured slowly over his face. He could not breathe. He tried to breathe through his mouth, but gagged as he sucked water in,” Mr Justice Rooney pointed out.

“The ‘water torture’, as he described it, occurred three or four times. 

“Leaving aside the significant psychological effects of this ‘water torture’, the plaintiff (had) an aversion to contact with water.”

With paratroopers having wrongly and unlawfully induced Mr Holden to make admissions, the MoD was held liable for his malicious prosecution and misfeasance in public office.

“There is no question that the soldiers had an honest belief that they were acting lawfully,” the judge said.

“This is a clear case of targeted malice, namely, conduct specifically intended to injure the plaintiff. 

“The soldiers knew and intended that their actions would injure the plaintiff and unquestionably acted in bad faith.”

Confirming a total further award of £350,000 damages, Mr Justice Rooney added: “I have no hesitation in concluding that the said wrongful acts amounted to exceptional and contumelious conduct on the part of the 2nd Parachute Regiment and that the plaintiff suffered considerable mental distress and emotions of extreme fear as a result.”

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