November 26 1974
SIX Ulster-born Birmingham men were remanded in custody until Thursday amid massive security at Birmingham yesterday, accused of murdering a schoolgirl who died in last Thursday’s bomb massacre in the city. They were charged with the murder of Jane Davis (17), one of 19 people killed in the two pub blasts.
Armed police were among scores of officers on duty in and around the city’s Victoria Law Courts and everyone entering the building was searched and asked for proof of identity.
The men appeared in the dock separately during the eight-minute hearing and reporting restrictions were not lifted.
Each man appeared accompanied by a detective in the packed court where nearly 50 uniformed and plain clothes officers, some armed, were on duty.
The six were: Hugh Callaghan (44); Patrick Joseph Hill (30); Robert Gerrard Hunter (29), all unemployed; Noel Richard McIlkenny (31), millwright’s mate; William Power (29) unemployed, and John Walker (39) crane-driver.
All live in Birmingham but police, who are guarding their homes, are keeping the addresses secret.
They were charged with being concerned with each other in murdering Miss Davis, grammar school sixth-former who died in the blast at the Tavern in the Town pub.
Neither Mr Ian Gould, representing Callaghan, Hill and Power, nor Mr Anthony Curtis, appearing for the others, objected to the remands or applied for bail.
Mr Maurice Buck, Assistant Chief Constable (Crime) for the West Midlands, Detective Chief Superintendent Harry Robinson, head of the region’s CID, and other senior police officers were in court for the hearing.
First in the dock was Walker, followed by Hunter, Hill, Power, McIlkenny and finally Callaghan.
Police held back a 500-strong crowd at the rear of the court buildings when the men were driven away under heavy guard. There were shouts of “dirty Irish bastards” and “dirty pigs” as a blue police van left escorted by seven unmarked police cars, two patrol cars and two motor-cycle outriders.
Amid a very hostile environment against the Irish in Britain following the Birmingham pub bombings days earlier, six men were charged with the bombings. Despite the men, who became known as the Birmingham Six, being innocent of the bombings, they were all convicted for life in what was one of the British justice system’s worst miscarriages of justice.
