A letter from Daniel Bradley concerning the British Army killing of his brother, IRA Volunteer Seamus Bradley, in 1972.
Referring to Vol. Seamus Bradley "Operation Motorman" July 31st 1972.
In my possession I hold war files belong to the British MoD which state clearly that the British army were at war with the IRA.
I also hold a document which William Whitelaw signed breaking the Geneva convention rules more than once. In this document he changes the yellow card, but most important he allows the soldiers to do as they will with no fear of any repercussions. This was confirmed at an inquest on the 16th October 1973 - that of Seamus Bradley. Again I have the evidence to prove what I am saying. Soldiers A and B made statements that Vol. Seamus Bradley was up a tree when shot four times and supposedly fell from that tree.
This was read out on October 16th. Also the pathologists report was read out claiming that Seamus Bradley bled to death. Then the state's barrister produced 2 B/W photographs claiming that Seamus Bradley was not tortured.
This was to cover up what the soldiers had done so as to uphold the word of Mr Whitelaw "that no soldier would be held accountable for any of their actions". So on the 16th Oct. 1973 the coroner directed that the jury plead an "open verdict".
The reasons for my application to call that a war crime has been committed are:
Firstly, I had been with Vol. Seamus Bradley that morning and I can confirm that he was not up a tree. No. he was drawing attention to himself running on flat ground to protect myself and others. Two soldiers fired at him, hitting him and he falls. Within 2 minutes he was put in a Saracen and taken away. After that no one knew what happened to Vol. Seamus Bradley as he was in the custody of the British army for approximately one and a half hours. He was returned home from the morgue badly bruised and with a possible broken neck.
The British government and the RUC closed ranks as well as the case.
In 2001 I went to the Strand road RUC station with a member of the Pat Finucane centre and my solicitor to get photographs and his clothes. They refused saying that they didn't have his clothes but did give 9 B/W photographs and was told that there were no more photographs, I was disappointed but didn't give up. After looking at the photographs, I noticed one of the pictures showed only the lower half of Seamus back and not the upper, so I carried on because it seems that the British and RUC were hiding what really happened to Seamus.
The years passed. In 2008 HET opened up my brothers case and actually lied and continued to lie and cover up and worse put the story out on the BBC "that if the soldiers were telling the truth then the soldiers had the right to kill Seamus Bradley" - 16th May 2012. They were shut down in 2014 because of their inability to tell the truth : "cover up."
I continued and in the year 2014 John Larkin ordered a new inquest which is of the utmost importance to the Bradley family but also to get justice and the truth of how our brother was really killed. Even today the British MoD are still holding back papers that would prove beyond doubt that Seamus Bradley was tortured. An army rifle strap was put around his neck, possibly breaking it, and he was shot 3 times at close range.
The coroner's office interviewed Sgt Penny who told the crown solicitor that there were coloured photographs in police files that were held back from the 1973 inquest.
In these coloured photographs which are very similar to the B/W, the back of the neck has again been withheld.
I also hold a document which William Whitelaw signed breaking the Geneva convention rules more than once. In this document he changes the yellow card, but most important he allows the soldiers to do as they will with no fear of any repercussions. This was confirmed at an inquest on the 16th October 1973 - that of Seamus Bradley. Again I have the evidence to prove what I am saying. Soldiers A and B made statements that Vol. Seamus Bradley was up a tree when shot four times and supposedly fell from that tree.
This was read out on October 16th. Also the pathologists report was read out claiming that Seamus Bradley bled to death. Then the state's barrister produced 2 B/W photographs claiming that Seamus Bradley was not tortured.
This was to cover up what the soldiers had done so as to uphold the word of Mr Whitelaw "that no soldier would be held accountable for any of their actions". So on the 16th Oct. 1973 the coroner directed that the jury plead an "open verdict".
The reasons for my application to call that a war crime has been committed are:
Firstly, I had been with Vol. Seamus Bradley that morning and I can confirm that he was not up a tree. No. he was drawing attention to himself running on flat ground to protect myself and others. Two soldiers fired at him, hitting him and he falls. Within 2 minutes he was put in a Saracen and taken away. After that no one knew what happened to Vol. Seamus Bradley as he was in the custody of the British army for approximately one and a half hours. He was returned home from the morgue badly bruised and with a possible broken neck.
The British government and the RUC closed ranks as well as the case.
In 2001 I went to the Strand road RUC station with a member of the Pat Finucane centre and my solicitor to get photographs and his clothes. They refused saying that they didn't have his clothes but did give 9 B/W photographs and was told that there were no more photographs, I was disappointed but didn't give up. After looking at the photographs, I noticed one of the pictures showed only the lower half of Seamus back and not the upper, so I carried on because it seems that the British and RUC were hiding what really happened to Seamus.
The years passed. In 2008 HET opened up my brothers case and actually lied and continued to lie and cover up and worse put the story out on the BBC "that if the soldiers were telling the truth then the soldiers had the right to kill Seamus Bradley" - 16th May 2012. They were shut down in 2014 because of their inability to tell the truth : "cover up."
I continued and in the year 2014 John Larkin ordered a new inquest which is of the utmost importance to the Bradley family but also to get justice and the truth of how our brother was really killed. Even today the British MoD are still holding back papers that would prove beyond doubt that Seamus Bradley was tortured. An army rifle strap was put around his neck, possibly breaking it, and he was shot 3 times at close range.
The coroner's office interviewed Sgt Penny who told the crown solicitor that there were coloured photographs in police files that were held back from the 1973 inquest.
In these coloured photographs which are very similar to the B/W, the back of the neck has again been withheld.
We now come to 2016 where the coroner, a man with 40 years experience, ordered a ballistics report. Again I have this in my possession and his summary confirms that Vol Seamus Bradley was not up a tree but had been running on flat ground when shot. He also confirms that Seamus Bradley had been stripped naked before being shot a further 3 times at close range and that it was an army rifle strap that had been put around his neck.
On the 1st Feb. 2017 John Grosvenor made a statement claiming that he was involved in an incident in the Creggan "operation motorman" July 31st 1972, and we believe that he was present in the Saracen that took Seamus captive.
Apparently Soldier A is supposedly deceased and soldier B has supposedly got Alzheimer's. As there are 8 people in each Saracen and there were 2 Saracens, 16 soldiers, I believe that this should be looked into by the Geneva convention and therefore I would be grateful for a reply to this letter as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully
Daniel Bradley
PS I believe that pressure should be placed upon the British government and the MoD to divulge all information, due to the fact that the British army declared war on the IRA and this crime should be held not in a civilian court.
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