Christy Walsh ✍ Step 1: Arrest a man in possession of a bomb at 1:35pm. Use the Parachute Regiment to keep custody of the bomb.
Step 2: Wait 15 minute.
Step 3: Arrest a second man at 1:50pm for possession of the same bomb.
Step 4: Secretly release Mr F and convict the second man. (Mr F was identified in undisclosed police files as a "known top IRA man").
Step 5: When the second man discovers undisclosed police files revealing the truth, construct a new version 35 years later: "joint enterprise and sequential possession".
This is not a how-to guide. It is the account that a High Court judgment, delivered in Belfast on 19th May 2026, asks us to accept as having occurred on Suffolk Road in 1991.
The Facts
At 1:35pm on 5th June 1991 a man identified as Mr F was arrested in possession of a coffee-jar bomb on Suffolk Road, Belfast. The Jar was placed on a wall, and soldiers took up cover positions.
I arrived at the scene at 1:50pm and was arrested by the soldiers. I testified under oath in 1992 that the bomb was already sitting on a nearby wall when I was stopped. The soldiers denied being in crouched cover positions when I arrived.
In 2008, I recovered undisclosed police and forensic files that Mr F had been caught in “possession of an explosive device (namely a blast bomb)”, signed by Detective Superintendent, Derek Martindale on 5th June 1991.
In March 2010, with no evidential basis, the Court accepted Mr F was arrested at 3:35pm in a follow-up operation. The prosecution told the Court that the time of Mr F's arrest, hours later, made no difference to my alleged possession.
In a Judgment in December 2025, the Court finally acknowledged the truth - contemporaneous police files confirmed Mr F was caught in possession of the coffee-jar bomb at 1:35pm, 15 minutes before I arrived at the scene.
On 19th May 2026, the Court reaffirmed that Mr F had possession of the bomb at 1:35pm on 5th June 1991. But the narrative about me has now changed after 35 years. The Court concluded in its judgment that Mr F and I were in "joint enterprise and sequential possession".
Because it is raised in the judgment for the first time, I was not given any opportunity to put up a defence. I did not, and do not, know Mr F. I only discovered his existence while going through files in the NI Forensic Science Laboratory on 2nd February 2008.
The Judgment fails to answer a crucial detail - how did Mr F transfer the bomb to me while he and the bomb were already in custody for a full 15 minutes before I arrived at the scene?
The Court’s solution: "Joint enterprise and sequential possession". But that requires Mr F and I knew each other and came into contact to make the exchange.
The Judgment creates this absurdity, for the bomb in Mr F's possession to 'sequentially' pass into my possession 15 minutes later - members of the Parachute Regiment were the conduit.
Paradoxically, the Court’s reasoning now corroborates my own evidence in 1992: that the device was already sitting on the wall when I arrived at the scene.
One Man, One Bomb
The Crown prosecution's case from 1991 until 19th May 2026 was that I acted alone. No prosecutor, no respondent, and no court in thirty-five years of proceedings ever advanced a case of "joint enterprise and sequential possession" between me and anyone else.
I had no opportunity to answer a case I did not know was being constructed against me, because it was created in my absence for the first time in the Judgment itself, after the hearing had closed.
On 7th December 1992, I was wrongfully convicted of possession of an explosive device. On 16th March 2010, the Court of Appeal found my conviction unsafe. On 19th May 2026, the Court denied me victim status by finding me implicitly guilty of two entirely different charges that were never prosecuted, namely, 1) joint enterprise and 2) sequential possession of an explosive device - involving a 'top IRA man' who was never charged, tried or convicted, despite his identity and possession being known at least 15 minutes before I arrived at the scene.
Step 2: Wait 15 minute.
Step 3: Arrest a second man at 1:50pm for possession of the same bomb.
Step 4: Secretly release Mr F and convict the second man. (Mr F was identified in undisclosed police files as a "known top IRA man").
Step 5: When the second man discovers undisclosed police files revealing the truth, construct a new version 35 years later: "joint enterprise and sequential possession".
This is not a how-to guide. It is the account that a High Court judgment, delivered in Belfast on 19th May 2026, asks us to accept as having occurred on Suffolk Road in 1991.
The Facts
At 1:35pm on 5th June 1991 a man identified as Mr F was arrested in possession of a coffee-jar bomb on Suffolk Road, Belfast. The Jar was placed on a wall, and soldiers took up cover positions.
I arrived at the scene at 1:50pm and was arrested by the soldiers. I testified under oath in 1992 that the bomb was already sitting on a nearby wall when I was stopped. The soldiers denied being in crouched cover positions when I arrived.
In 2008, I recovered undisclosed police and forensic files that Mr F had been caught in “possession of an explosive device (namely a blast bomb)”, signed by Detective Superintendent, Derek Martindale on 5th June 1991.
In March 2010, with no evidential basis, the Court accepted Mr F was arrested at 3:35pm in a follow-up operation. The prosecution told the Court that the time of Mr F's arrest, hours later, made no difference to my alleged possession.
In a Judgment in December 2025, the Court finally acknowledged the truth - contemporaneous police files confirmed Mr F was caught in possession of the coffee-jar bomb at 1:35pm, 15 minutes before I arrived at the scene.
On 19th May 2026, the Court reaffirmed that Mr F had possession of the bomb at 1:35pm on 5th June 1991. But the narrative about me has now changed after 35 years. The Court concluded in its judgment that Mr F and I were in "joint enterprise and sequential possession".
Because it is raised in the judgment for the first time, I was not given any opportunity to put up a defence. I did not, and do not, know Mr F. I only discovered his existence while going through files in the NI Forensic Science Laboratory on 2nd February 2008.
The Judgment fails to answer a crucial detail - how did Mr F transfer the bomb to me while he and the bomb were already in custody for a full 15 minutes before I arrived at the scene?
The Court’s solution: "Joint enterprise and sequential possession". But that requires Mr F and I knew each other and came into contact to make the exchange.
The Judgment creates this absurdity, for the bomb in Mr F's possession to 'sequentially' pass into my possession 15 minutes later - members of the Parachute Regiment were the conduit.
Paradoxically, the Court’s reasoning now corroborates my own evidence in 1992: that the device was already sitting on the wall when I arrived at the scene.
One Man, One Bomb
The Crown prosecution's case from 1991 until 19th May 2026 was that I acted alone. No prosecutor, no respondent, and no court in thirty-five years of proceedings ever advanced a case of "joint enterprise and sequential possession" between me and anyone else.
I had no opportunity to answer a case I did not know was being constructed against me, because it was created in my absence for the first time in the Judgment itself, after the hearing had closed.
On 7th December 1992, I was wrongfully convicted of possession of an explosive device. On 16th March 2010, the Court of Appeal found my conviction unsafe. On 19th May 2026, the Court denied me victim status by finding me implicitly guilty of two entirely different charges that were never prosecuted, namely, 1) joint enterprise and 2) sequential possession of an explosive device - involving a 'top IRA man' who was never charged, tried or convicted, despite his identity and possession being known at least 15 minutes before I arrived at the scene.
⏩ Christy Walsh was stitched up by the British Ministry of Defence in a no jury trial and spent many years in prison as a result.
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