§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Attorney-General how many prisoners at present on remand in Her Majesty's prison, Belfast, have appeared before the courts where the uncorroborated evidence of prosecution witnesses has not been accepted by the trial judge, or the prosecution has withdrawn the evidence; on how many occasions this has occurred; how many prisoners have been affected; and what length of time each prisoner has been on remand.
§ The Attorney-General[pursuant to his reply, 30 March 1984, c. 343]: The information is as follows: Five persons who have been tried for terrorist offences in cases in which an accomplice gave evidence for the Crown and who were acquitted, are presently charged and are in custody awaiting trial in other cases involving terrorist offences in which another accomplice will give evidence for the Crown. A sixth person who would otherwise fall into this category was granted bail on 29 March 1984.
In addition, there are seven persons now in custody awaiting trial for terrorist offences and at whose trial an 604W accomplice will give evidence for the Crown who have previously been in custody on the evidence of another accomplice and not brought to trial thereon, but four of these remand prisoners are included in the category set out above.
The date of first remand for the eight persons within the two categories above since which they have been in custody is 12 February 1982 (three persons), 26 March 1982 (one person), 4 May 1982 (one person), 2 February 1983 (one person) and 21 May 1983 (two persons).