INTERROGATION CENTRES:THE CONCERNS of police doctors, MPs, priests and the Northern Ireland Police Authority at mounting evidence of brutality in RUC interrogation centres in the North are detailed in confidential files released by the Public Record Office in Belfast.
The allegations were to lead directly to the establishment of the Bennett inquiry, headed by an English judge, which reported in March 1979. The Bennett report confirmed that injuries sustained in police custody were not self-inflicted. The British government accepted its major recommendations, including the installation of closed-circuit television in interview rooms.
The "misgivings" of police doctors are recorded in a report of a meeting on October 11th, 1977, between RUC chief constable Sir Kenneth Newman and the Police Doctors' Association. The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) official who reported on the meeting, AA Pritchard, understood that Sir Kenneth was prepared to establish a joint working group under assistant chief constable Jack Hermon (later chief constable of the RUC) to examine the cases.
As concern over the issue mounted, a Northern Ireland Office memo dated October 21st, 1977, noted that the issue had united the SDLP, the Civil Rights Association, Provisional Sinn Féin and Loyalist organisations. SDLP leader Gerry Fitt MP had announced his intention to press for a government inquiry while Andy Tyrie, the supreme commander of the UDA, had declared his support for exposing the activities of certain police officers at Castlereagh holding centre.
An intelligence briefing document in the file warned of the possible international impact of allegations of police brutality. An official noted that a strong effect would be "to undermine a recent trend towards a more understanding attitude in America towards HMG's position", while there were also signs of renewed Soviet interest in the matter. "It is part of their answer to western criticism of Soviet handling of human rights."
Finally, it alleged that: "The attacks on the RUC are running in tandem with similar criticism of the Garda in the Republic."
On October 27th, 1977, Mr Pritchard circulated a memo to ministers and officials on the brutality allegations.Sir Kenneth had told the official that he felt "he had contributed to the build-up of the current campaign through his decision to permit private doctors to visit those under interrogation at Castlereagh". "Dubious elements had taken advantage of this ruling" and the chief constable was considering tightening up the rules governing medical examinations of prisoners at interrogation centres. The head of the NIO, Brian Cubbon, told him that this would be a last resort.
Following the screening on October 27th of a This Week TV programme on the issue made by the journalist Peter Taylor, the allegations of brutality intensified. On November 12th, Fr Raymond Murray, chaplain to Armagh (Women's) Prison, wrote to secretary of state Roy Mason about the case of Mary McCann, a prisoner in Armagh who had alleged serious ill-treatment under interrogation at Castlereagh RUC interrogation centre during the period November 6th to 10th, 1977.
Fr Murray wrote: "She alleges she was interviewed 13 times and during that time was pushed, pulled, slapped, kicked, threatened by interrogators, both male and female. She had extensive bruising, a lump and bruise over her left eye and bruises on her left arm . . . I have seen the injuries myself."
The pressures increased with a letter from Mr Fitt on October 28th concerning the case of Tony Crozier of Keady, Co Armagh, alleging serious allegations of police brutality at Armagh RUC station, including being beaten on the legs and knuckles with an iron pipe. Mr Crozier was allegedly forced to do press-ups until exhausted and menaced with an electric fan which he was told would be used to administer electric shocks. It was also alleged an RUC man had put a gun to his head and threatened him with assassination on a Border road.
On November 10th , leading Belfast defence solicitor PJ McGrory wrote a strong letter to Mr Mason. He alleged that a large number of solicitors practising in Northern Ireland courts shared "the conviction that ill-treatment of suspects by police officers with the object of obtaining confessions is now common practice" and that this occurred most often at Castlereagh RUC station. "We find it very difficult to accept that this happens without the knowledge of a substantial number of police officers of senior rank," Mr McGrory said. The solicitors were collecting evidence for a forthcoming Amnesty International inquiry into the allegations.
By March 1978, six months after the initial allegations, the situation was beginning to concern the members of the Police Authority.
On March 9th, two members, Dr W Baird and Mr Canavan, had a meeting with the NIO junior minister James Dunn. They wished, they said, to alert the minister to "a very serious issue which the police surgeons had raised with the Police Authority. In particular, the surgeons were anxious about possible ill-treatment of prisoners under interrogation."On March 7th, 1978, Dr Baird wrote to Sir Kenneth about the issue. He said the Police Authority had met three police doctors, Drs Alexander, Elliott and Irwin. The doctors were worried about a "resurgence" of brutality and alleged "a general worsening of attitudes" following a visit by Amnesty. They were uneasy that no result had emerged about specific cases they had reported to the chief constable the previous year.