Paddy Hill
9 June 2002 :Birmingham Six man wins £1m payout
By Martin Bright and Amelia Hill
Paddy Hill, who spent 16 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, is set to receive £1 million compensation from the Government after 10 years of negotiations.
Hill, who plans to move to Scotland to start a new life, said that, although not totally satisfied, he would accept the settlement. 'This is still not enough compensation after spending all that time in jail for a crime I did not commit and for the brutality suffered at the hands of the police and prison authorities, but it is time to move on,' he said.
The 56-year-old father of six rejected two earlier offers, saying they were 'absolute insults'. Lawyers for Hill and other members of the Birmingham Six will continue to press for a public apology from the Government for the men's treatment at the hands of the police and prison authorities. Hill was convicted in August 1975 and received 21 life sentences for the pub bombs in Birmingham city centre, in which 21 people were killed and 189 injured. No one claimed they had carried out the bombings. Police arrested the men after Hill and four others tried to board a ferry to Northern Ireland on the night of the bombings to attend the funeral of a known IRA bomber. All the defendants have repeatedly proclaimed their innocence.
Hill was released in March 1991 when the police case against him was overturned in the Court of Appeal. He did not receive any counselling and found it difficult to adapt to life on the outside. Three years ago he founded the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation to help other ex-prisoners in a similar situation. His solicitor Gareth Peirce wrote to Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen in March, urging him to intervene in 'continuing unresolved injustices' over the British Government's refusal to acknowledge liability for the mistreatment of the Birmingham Six. Peirce said it was important to extract a full apology because 'influential people continue to reiterate behind closed doors... that the men were in fact guilty and escaped life imprisonment only on a technicality'. She said the offer from the British Government was a tribute to Hill's persistent fight for justice: 'Paddy Hill has achieved his victories against impossible odds that no other person could have achieved. The reopening of the case and the final successful appeal were in large part due to his fight from within prison. This recalculation should be a bare minimum for the recognition of the enormity of the crimes committed against him.'
Last December Hill rejected an offer of £549,932 in compensation. Although the full offer was over £900,000, the difference was to be withheld because of various reductions.