§ 36. Mr. CryerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which of the police officers who gave evidence at the original Birmingham pub bombing trial have since been imprisoned for criminal offences; and for what offences.
§ 44. Mr. FlanneryTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of the police officers who gave evidence against the six men convicted of the Birmingham pub bombings have subsequently been convicted of assaulting suspects with a view to obtaining a confession.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggOf the 57 officers who gave written or oral evidence at the trial, none is currently suspended from duty. One, a police constable at the time involved in escort duties, but not in interviewing suspects, and who gave oral evidence, was subsequently, as a sergeant, convicted at Birmingham Crown court on 1 November 1983 of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The victim was a suspect arrested on suspicion of theft. The officer was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment, six months of which were suspended. He was dismissed from the force.
§ 46. Mr. MullinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department. pursuant to his answer of 17 March,Official Report, column 1212, before which police force he proposes that those hon. Members with evidence of alleged collusion between the two principal Crown witnesses. Dr. Frank Skuse and Superintendent George Reade, at the recent Appeal Court hearing of the Birmingham pub bombings case, should lay such evidence.
§ Mr. John PattenThe responsibility for investigating alleged offences rests with the police force in whose area the offence occurred. It will be for that force to seek assistance from any other force as necessary. In the case to which the hon. Member refers I understand the alleged offence may have occurred in the City of London.