‘Craigavon 2' - Time For A Long Hard Look

Ed Moloney, following on from the earlier letter by Ciarán Mulholland,  with thoughts of his own on the case of the Craigavon 2. Ed Moloney blogs @ The Broken Elbow.
 
‘Making A Murder – Craigavon Style’ – Letter To The Editor

I have to admit that I have paid only passing attention to the case of the Craigavon Two – Brendan McConville and John-Paul Wooton – whose supporters say were framed for the Continuity IRA killing of PSNI Constable Stephen Carroll in 2009.

I have not investigated the background to the case or the competing claims concerning their guilt or innocence because, I suppose, these types of cases cannot really be investigated properly unless you are on the ground and can look into peoples’ eyes, so to speak. And I am not on the ground these days.


The Craigavon Two - Brendan McConville ® and
The Craigavon Two – Brendan McConville (right) and John-Paul Wooton
 

But there is a simple litmus test, at least in my experience gained covering other cases like Guildford & Birmingham, that should be applied to such claims and it is this: when someone insists on their innocence and keeps on doing so, year in, year out, in good weather and bad, and especially when everything seems hopeless and no-one is paying attention, the chances that they are indeed innocent are usually very strong.

Guilty people may initially make such a claim but it fades and disappears with time because ultimately it is anger at injustice that fuels such campaigns and guilty people cannot sustain anger if it is a bogus emotion.

A truly innocent person has enough anger at their being framed to keep going forever, even to climb onto a prison canteen roof in the middle of winter to proclaim their innocence and the awful injustice done to themselves.

A guilty person will inevitably adjust themselves to their new, unwelcome circumstances and settle down to serve their time.

Brendan McConville and John-Paul Wooton are now entering the sixth year of their own campaign and I think that qualifies for inclusion in the category of angry campaigners that I describe above. It is time, I suggest, for a long, hard look at the case both by the media and civil libertarians.

Goodness knows, we had enough miscarriages of justice during the Troubles; do we really want to start over again?

You can obtain more information about the case and contact their supporters at this website.

The letter below is from Belfast lawyer and human rights and trade union activist, Ciaran Mulholland who, inter alia, highlights what he says were police and prosecutorial abuses in the investigation and trial of the men:


Making a Murder – Craigavon Style


The hype of the Netflix series ‘Making A Murder’ regarding the systemic flaws of the convictions against Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey raise many similarities to the case of Craigavon men, Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton who were convicted of the murder of Constable Steven Carroll in 2009.

It is shocking the impact of a professionally well produced documentary-drama can have on the public audience. Globally people are debating and campaigning regarding the abuses of the Manitowoc County Sherriff Department, their prosecutorial system and the Wisconsin State in general. There has even been a petition to President Obama for a pardon given the unsafe convictions and how they were gained.

Meanwhile there continues to be an appeasement of a dreadful miscarriage of justice in our own country. One that involves fundamental abuses of police powers, the destruction of evidence, the use of an infamous ‘Walter-Mitty’ witness, dubious informants, attempts to conceal evidence by Crown experts, the exploitation of Public Interest Immunity Orders, selective discovery, the denial of a jury and the sabotage of an appeal, to name but a few issues!

I believe everyone accused of a crime should be entitled to the presumption of innocence, irrespective of the crime and the beliefs of the defendant. There is also the necessity for the prosecution to act with integrity and present a case fairly, regardless of the Police or Security Services agendas. This was certainly not the case in the trial and appeals of the Craigavon Two. These two men are wrongfully serving life sentences and I encourage all to study the facts of this case.

“To ignore evil is to become accomplice to it” – Justice for the Craigavon Two.

Ciarán Mulholland

Belfast

January 2016

6 comments:

  1. Covering for a higher placed informer?

    But why these two as patsy's?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Why don't the "brave" republicans who murdered the innocent man out doing his days work not hand themselves in and free the two "innocent" men.

    Naive you may say, fair enough but lets call a spade a spade, if these men are innocent then the guilty are sitting at home allowing their "comrades" to suffer.

    Or is it easier for everyone to just have a good old fashioned "let's blame the Brits" gurning match instead?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Andy,
    Do you really believe that the so called UDR4 who were released on a technicality through the campaigning of Ian Paisley Jr were innocent? If so, then why didn't the real murderers come forth...blah, blah, blah.....

    ReplyDelete
  4. Steve R

    Plain incompetence of the security forces involved might be to blame rather than any informer.

    However, you wonder why would the security forces stitch up innocent men? there are loads of possible answers to that one of which 1 could be to cover up their own incompetence - maybe they had to come up with somebody given the amount of hightech equipment used and the clowns using it never formatted their own brains?

    Andy

    If we accept your logic then police need only ever collar the first passerby of any given police station with a view of framing them unless the real culprit they are looking for comes forward and takes responsibility. You don't happen to be one of the cops involved in this case?? because that would be invaluable insight into how these 2 men came to be convicted.

    ReplyDelete
  5. True Christy, even I was told as kid to never trust a cop!

    ReplyDelete