Wed, 06 Apr 2016
The Senior Coroner for Birmingham and Solihull held a further hearing today to review the issue of disclosure of material from West Midlands Police. WMP had disclosed a large quantity of material and produced an executive summary amounting to 260 pages. However, solicitors, KRW LLP representing Julie Hambelton whose sister was killed in the Bombing in 1974, had also disclosed a number of witness statements received following the last hearing which support the claims that the security forces may have had an informant and advanced warning of the bombs.
Further, it was said on behalf of the families that the material disclosed thus far does not detract from the submissions previously made that (1) there may have been an informant acting on behalf of the State, (2) the State were made aware in advance about the bombs, (c) there was a delay in the provision of the emergency services.
Ashley Underwood QC appeared on behalf of Julie Hambleton with Malachy McGowan, and Nageena Khalique QC joined the team on behalf of the families of the victims. The next hearing will be on 12 May 2016 at which time it will be discussed whether WMP wish to make an application for public interest immunity in respect of any material which they do not wish to be disclosed for security or data protection issues.
Miss Khalique said: “Although the Coroner has yet to make a decision as to whether to re-open the inquests, significant progress has been made with the recent and voluminous disclosure of material not previously seen by them and it is hoped that the families of the victims will finally be able to get justice through a restored inquest".
To read the previous article about this case please click here.
