LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
On 21st November 1974, bombs went off in the Mulberry Bush and The Tavern in the Town, two pubs in the centre of Birmingham, killing 21 people and injuring 182. The attacks were the worst of many atrocities in England during a sustained campaign by the IRA.
If you are under fifty, you may well be unfamiliar with the tale of six men from Birmingham and how their wrongful conviction for these bombings would eventually send shudders through the UK legal establishment. You may recall seeing television footage in 1991 of a group of men walking from the Old Bailey in London. You may also have noticed one man, Chris Mullin, being invited to join those men as they stood to be photographed by the attendant press and media.
You might, thanks to misinformation, even harbour some vague suspicion these men were perhaps ‘a little bit guilty’ and had been released as a result of one of those technicalities our criminal justice system is so renowned for. You would be very, very wrong.
To the UK criminal justice system, journalist Chris Mullin was the grit in the oyster, an irritant who would eventually become a pearl. In 1987, when Granada TV’s World in Action transmitted a story he had been researching for several years, serious doubt was cast on the convictions. Witnesses spoke of the men as having been ‘fitted up’ by the police and the subject of flawed forensic evidence. Four more years would pass before the court system found in their favour and they were released.
Error of Judgement is, perhaps, unique in what it achieved as a book. Not only were the Birmingham Six freed as a result of Mullin’s investigation, his work led to a Royal Commission on Criminal Justice and the formation of the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Hundreds of wrongly convicted and excessively sentenced people were freed as a result.
This book changed the course of history and, in doing so, achieved justice and put a great many wrongs, right. It’s a lesson to all of us and a story we should all know.
Matt Johnson
Find This Book In
About
Error of Judgement The Birmingham Bombings and the Scandal That Shook Britain Synopsis
Error of Judgment lit a fire under the establishment when it was first published, shattering the prosecution case against six Irishmen charged with the Birmingham Bombings and going on to change the course of British legal history.
On the evening of 21st November 1974, bombs planted by the IRA in two crowded Birmingham pubs exploded, killing 21 people and injuring at least 170. Within a day of the explosion, six men - Paddy Hill, Gerry Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, Billy Power, Johnny Walker and Hughie Callaghan - were arrested and charged. All were found guilty.
Methodically, with total clarity and a tone that is both gripping and impassioned, then investigative journalist Mullin unpicked every detail of the case, revealing gaping holes in the prosecution case and the horrifying consequences of an establishment determined to close ranks.
Now 50 years on from the Birmingham Bombings and with new writing from Mullin, this classic edition of Error of Judgement tells the complete story of one of the most significant miscarriages of justice ever. As relevant now as it was when it was first published, it's an essential text on corruption, violence and bias in British policing and justice.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781800961234 |
| Publication date: |
15th February 2024 |
| Author: |
Chris Mullin |
| Publisher: |
Monoray an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
528 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Biographies & Autobiographies
|
| Other Genres: |
|
| Recommendations: |
|
Press Reviews
Chris Mullin Press Reviews
Very occasionally a journalist starts an avalanche with a single gunshot: William Howard Russell of The Times on the condition of the British Army in the Crimea in the 1850s; WT Stead of the Pall Mall Gazette on child prostitution in London in the 1890s; a handful of others. Chris Mullin and his TV colleagues belong in the glorious company - The Observer
One of the greatest feats ever achieved by an investigative reporter - Sebastian Faulks, the Independent On Sunday
Whoever planted the bombs in Birmingham...also planted a bomb under the British legal establishment - Robert Harris, Sunday Times
Author
About Chris Mullin
Chris Mullin, author, journalist and former MP, a minister in three departments and chairman of the Home Affairs select committee. His books include a highly acclaimed volume of diaries, “A View from the Foothills” and the novel “A Very British Coup” which was made into an award-winning television series. He is an accomplished public speaker.
More About Chris Mullin
