BYMICHAEL BRESLIN
State papers released this week reveal the existence of systematic abuse, physical and emotional, of detainees in three holding centres in the North in the 1970's and the attempts at cover-up at the highest level of the RUC as the force was then called.
The five-day detentions impacted on Fermanagh in that 'prisoners' from here were brought to either Castlereagh in East Belfast, Strand Road in Derry and Gough Barracks in Armagh. Arguably the most notable was Enniskillen head teacher, Bernard O'Connor whose ill-treatment at the hands of Special Branch interrogators in Castlereagh led to a famous victory in Court when he took a case against the then Secretary of State, Roy Mason and the Chief Constable in 1980.
He had been arrested in January, 1977 and, over the course of his five days' detention in Castlereagh, he was quizzed by in all 38 detectives, struck, deprived of sleep, forced to strip naked and hooded.
Speaking to the 'Herald', he said the trauma remained: "They could have killed me and very nearly did at one stage of the interrogation. The idea was to get you to make statements for them to stop it."
In the course of one three-year period, more than 3,000 people were charged with paramilitary-related offences, based largely on confessions obtained at Castleragh. In 1978, an Amnesty Report accused the RUC of mistreatment of detainees held there. Following its publication, Roy Mason promised an enquiry but the then RUC Chief Constable, Kenneth Newman rejected its findings.
The year before, a leading Belfast defence lawyer, P. J. McGrory, writing on behalf of a large number of solicitors, told Roy Mason that the legal profession, 'shared the conviction that ill-treatment of suspects by police officers with the object of obtaining confessions is now common practice'.
The letter highlighted Castlereagh as a particular source of complaints, and Mr McGrory then informed Roy Mason that the solicitors would be presenting evidence of the forthcoming Amnesty International Enquiry into the allegations.
Events moved swiftly after that. Two members of the Police Authority met with a Junior Northern Ireland Office Junior Minister, expressing their concerns and the State papers released this week show that one of these two, Dr W. Baird wrote to the Chief Constable.
He told Sir Kenneth Newman that the Police Authority had met three Police doctors (they were on duty at holding centres) who were worried about a resurgence of brutality in the wake of the Amnesty International Report.
One of the three, a Dr Elliott was so concerned at, 'the intolerable situation regarding the maltreatment of prisoners' that he submitted a written request to be transferred from Gough Barracks.
Under pressure, the Chief Constable agreed to meet the doctors and, having agreed to consider cctv in the three holding centres, Dr Elliott withdrew his transfer request. In March the following year, the Bennett Report confirmed medical evidence of ill-treatment and the UK government accepted its main recommendations, including cctv.
