State Violence

by Raymond Murray

  I was brought round to the interrogation centre. Then stripped of all personal belongings. I was made sit in the cubicles. I was taken out and questioned by the Special Branch for periods, different lengths of time, sometimes half-an-hour, sometimes one and a half hours. The second last one I was brought into a room. The lights were off in the room. I was made sit in a chair. As I made to sit in the chair it was pulled below me. I fell to the floor and the lights went on again. There were three men there with stockings on their faces. The head man says, ‘if you want to have it easy tell us everything you have done’. When I said I had nothing to tell, I was made stand against the wall, fingers distributed and legs outstretched. I was beaten and kicked in the stomach and privates for about half-an-hour. I was made lie on the floor. My pants and underpants were removed. One put his foot on my throat and the other held my legs. The other one lit matches. He blew them out and then put them to my privates. Then they made a few rude remarks about my wife and made me get up again. They made me stand against the wall again. That was a rest for about fifteen minutes.

  Then they took me into another room. They told me not to look around but I saw a man with a green apron and green overalls with a mask like a doctor. He was a big heavy-set man. They made me sit on a chair facing the wall. They blinded my eyes with a cloth. They rubbed my arm with some stuff and I felt a jab in my arm. I felt my head dizzy. Then I thought they were taking my blood pressure for a band was wrapped round my arm. Then I felt an electric shock going through my arm. It got higher and higher and I felt it going through my legs and the rest of my body. I was holding on to the arm of the chair. Another person lifted my arm off the chair. The person who lifted my arm off the chair told me to sit ordinary without holding anything. The shocks went all through my body, down through my feet and all. Then I heard a voice, ‘I think he has had enough’. The other replied, ‘Electrocute the bastard’. The things round my eyes and arm were taken off.

  I was told not to look around. I was taken into the same room I got the beatings. Made stand against the wall. Punched in the stomach and then the one punching replied, ‘I have hurted my knuckles on the bastard’. Then they started to kick my stomach. They brought me over an electric fire as I was standing against the wall, fingers outstretched. One says, ‘Are you too warm?’ I never replied. He put it up to the full height. The sweat was running out of me. I was soaking. I said, ‘That’s it. You can take me out and shoot me. I don’t care’. One who said he hurt his knuckles kept on punching me. He was about fifty, a big man, well-made, grey hair. Before this, after he had beaten me and taken the mask off, he said, ‘You know I did a bit of boxing myself’. He punched me four times in the face. I says, ‘I’m down but I would still do you if I was on my own’. I felt a punch on the back of my neck. They threw me out of the room.

  A policeman outside linked me into a chair where you sit looking at the wee holes in the wall. When he saw the state I was in, he asked me to go to the toilet and get a drink of water. I came back and was set down on the chair for about two hours. Then a camp bed was brought in, must have been the early hours of Friday morning. I was told to make a camp bed and lie down on it. But a policeman stood over me all night whistling party tunes. He kicked me on the ribs and called me a bastard. I was awake all night. Didn’t sleep, the lights were on, and he was standing over me.

  Then I was made get up and sit on the chair and then brought out into another interrogation room. A man in his thirties with a beard was questioning me, more a talk. He said I was a Communist. He told me how many men he killed and he thought nothing of shooting me.

  I made a statement after the electric shocks but can’t remember whether I signed it, don’t think I signed anything.

  I was examined by five doctors altogether. I was examined by two doctors in Girdwood. One examined me and just went out. Another time after the beatings one examined me in Girdwood. He was worried about my kidney. He made me strip. I was examined by three doctors at Townhall (police station), by my own doctor, Dr Duffy, Duncairn Gardens, by a police doctor, and by the solicitor’s doctor.

  John Moore

  In the early hours of Friday morning, about 4am, 21 January 1972, I was arrested. The soldiers came into the house. They said they wanted to search the place. I told them to go ahead. They searched the house and brought down five jackets belonging to me and said they were taking them away with them. They told me to get dressed. As soon as I went on the landing, they read a paper saying they were arresting me under the Special Powers Act. They kicked me downstairs into the car park. They said, for my own protection and the protection of those in the ‘pig’, they would have to blindfold me. They put a blindfold on and turned me round a few times. They brought me over and put me into the ‘pig’. They drove around for about twenty minutes. I thought I was at the Maidstone (prison ship in Belfast harbour for detainees). I thought I smelt sea water. The ‘pig’ stopped and I was brought out and put up against the wall. They left me there for about ten or fifteen minutes. They came back about fifteen minutes later and brought me into a building. They set me down on a chair and took my shoes and socks off.

  I was brought into a room, still blindfolded. I was facing a voice talking to me. He asked me what I did with the gun. I said I hadn’t got the gun. I got kicked on the shin. He repeated it. Same answer. I was kicked on the other shin. Same question again. I was tapped on the head with a baton six or seven times, each time getting harder. I said I never used it. One of them said, ‘Bring in the witness’. They took off the blindfold. They brought the witness in. He asked, ‘Is this the man you saw from the building site?’ ‘How many children have you?’ I said, ‘Five’. He said, ‘Did they know that you are getting eight and ten years for burning a bus, and there will be a long time for shooting at my troops’. I said I didn’t do it. He said, ‘Take him away; you know what to do with him’.

  They brought me into another room. I was made sit down in the middle of the floor. They put on my shoes and socks. I was blindfolded again. I put them on. I was brought out again. Put into the ‘pig’. I was given a couple of digs in the ribs getting into the ‘pig’. They took me somewhere. I don’t know where. Same thing, ‘What did you do with the gun?’ and all. I said the same thing. Back into the ‘pig’ again. A voice from the front of the saracen said, ‘Take the blindfold off him’.

  I was brought to Girdwood. As soon as I was put into Girdwood, I was brought into the back into a small hut, different cubicles, small, chairs. I was made sit there. I didn’t know what time this was at. I sat in the chair, just looking at wall with holes in it. It was near breakfast time; they were coming in with breakfast for other men lying there. I sat there all day.

  Just after supper time, a uniformed person comes in and took me to another chalet. I was interrogated there by ‘plain clothes’. I took him to be a detective. He said he knew I fired a rifle that day and said I would have to tell him what I did with the rifle. I said I couldn’t tell him anything, that I was in the house all day, the child was sick and the doctor was coming. Two more came in and asked questions. Then another two or three. There were six altogether, I think. They told me to stand up against the wall, fingertips, feet well back. After five minutes my fingers were getting numb, tired. Again, ‘What did you do with the gun?’ I said I didn’t have it. Same again. The tallest stood directly behind me, tall, black blazer, football badge or something on it, wore glasses, greyish sort of hair. He was standing directly behind me chopping my sides with his two hands. There was a young one with a Scotch accent, a beard, gingerish hair, at my left side, one hitting me and then the other. Another one with two hands on my spine was pushing me towards the floor. One detective, about thirty, was sitting on a chair. He was asking where was the gun. I didn’t have to go through all this here. I just gave the same answer, I didn’t have it. He said, ‘Give him a rest for a while’. About five minutes. Standing against the wall.

  They all came round me again and told me to take off my pants. I had
a blue jumper on. They took the jumper and shirt off. I was just in vest and underpants and socks. They started the same again, one at the back and front, punching and kicking all the time. One was still punching me from the back. I said I couldn’t help them at all. They put this jumper on me, put it around my head and took me out of the room and marched me next door.

  When I walked in there, there were surgeons there, and like an operating table. They had big green cloaks and masks, round hats. They sat me down on a chair beside the table. On the table was a small bottle of stuff, and two syringes with needles, something like dark blue in the small bottle. There were two syringes. I was sitting on a chair. Somebody came from behind and put on a blindfold. Then I heard somebody saying he was going to give me an injection on the arm. He gave me an injection on the right arm, then he tied something round it, then he did something to my fingers, fiddling about with them. Then he says, ‘Are you going to tell us what you did with the gun?’ Then I repeated the same answer, I never had a gun. Then I felt this feeling in my arm, electric shocks, but two given to start off with, not painful, just uncomfortable. Then every time they asked a question, it only kept increasing, got severer and severer. My mouth dried up. I couldn’t even talk to them. They asked, ‘What is the matter?’ I pointed to my throat. I was going to say, ‘I’m going to tell yous’, but I couldn’t talk. They turned it off altogether. I couldn’t even feel my arm. They brought over a plastic cup of water and gave it to me to drink. I said, ‘All right. I’ll tell you what you want to know; I will tell you who fired the rifle’. They took the blindfold off then. One said, ‘Don’t forget this can be put on again’. I told them it was me who fired the rifle, that I was told to go to a certain spot. They let me put on me again.

  William Johnston

  I was arrested at my girlfriend’s house in Ardoyne, Monday morning about 3am, 24 January 1972. and was taken to Tennent Street Police Station and then brought to Girdwood Barracks. I wasn’t long in the police station and wasn’t touched there.

  I was 36 hours in Girdwood Park. They let me sleep there until the next day. I don’t know what time, but an hour after going there I was let go to bed. They questioned me the next day, but later on that night (Monday). They started to interrogate me, insulting me, made me take my boots and trousers off. They stood me against the wall, fingers on the wall, feet as far back as I could. One of them chopping me on the sides from behind. The other was hitting me in the stomach. This went on for about an hour or so. Then they put a coat over my head and brought me into the next room. They took the coat off and put on a blindfold. I saw one beside me, tall, dressed in dark green uniform. I thought he was a doctor. But later I knew it was one of those who interrogated me by the sound of his voice. He was wearing a mask and hat like a doctor, dark green. There was a needle there with purple stuff in it. I thought they were going to give me a truth drug. I don’t think they gave me the needle. I didn’t feel one anyhow. They sat me on a chair. They put a thing on my arm, still blindfold. They gave me electric shocks. I couldn’t stand the pain. Then I admitted charges. After they asked me for a lot more information, about my area. I said I didn’t know anybody.

  Then the CID came and took me down and said I would be out of Girdwood. On my own I did not intend to make a statement. I would have done anything to get out of Girdwood Park.

  Castlereagh Interrogation Centre: Bernard O'Connor, 1977

  In 1975 complaints began to mount that plain clothes police were ill-treating people detained under emergency laws at Castlereagh RUC Interrogation Centre. The brutality increased towards the end of 1976. Some 1,700 people processed in the centre were charged in 1977. Amnesty International highlighted the ill-treatment in its report of June 1978. Fr Denis Faul and I had also brought the allegations of ill-treatment of arrested persons before the public in a book The Castlereagh File published in 1978. On 2 March 1977 Keith Kyle of the BBC presented a special Tonight programme on interrogation methods in Northern Ireland. He interviewed two men who had been interrogated in Castlereagh, Bernard O’Connor and Michael Lavelle. In our book we published extensive extracts from Bernard O’Connor’s statement to his lawyers and a medical and psychiatric report on him after his interrogation which indicated injury and stress confirming that he had been assaulted while in police custody. Following the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg’s pronouncement on 18 January 1978 finding the United Kingdom guilty of violating Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights on two counts, Keith Kyle wrote an article in The Listener, 26 January 1978. He wrote, ‘The Castlereagh situation involves, among others, Bernard O’Connor who was interviewed by me on the Tonight programme in March 1977 (The Listener, 10 March 1977). Mr O’Connor, an Enniskillen schoolmaster, made allegations on that programme in great detail that resembled closely the second category of cases in which the court found against Britain. This, and subsequent allegations by others, create the suggestion that the condemned “practice” – which in the usage of the European Human Rights Court means “an accumulation of identical or analogous breaches which are sufficiently numerous and interconnected to amount not merely to isolated incidents or exceptions but to a pattern or system (so that) it is inconceivable that the higher authorities of a state should be, or at least should be entitled to be, unaware of (its) existence” – is continuing today.’

  Bernard O’Connor relates in his statement:

  Arrest

  On Thursday 20 January 1977, at approximately 5.30 in the morning, I was awakened to the banging of our front door. I jumped out of bed and ran to the window and saw outside a large number of army and RUC personnel. I thought there was something wrong and I wakened my wife. I ran down the stairs to the front door. When I opened the door, a soldier came in. He told me that he was searching the house under the Special Powers Act, or words to that effect. Two or three soldiers came through the door, then followed by a policeman with a large sheet of paper in his hand. He put his hand on my shoulder and asked me was I Bernard O’Connor and I said I was. He said, ‘Well, you, Bernard O’Connor, are being arrested under Section 12 of the Special Powers Act (or words to that effect) for having knowledge of explosives and shooting offences in Enniskillen.’ I asked him was he joking and he said ‘No’. The other policeman said, perhaps I would like to put some clothes on, as I was just in my pyjamas. So I went upstairs. During this time a number of soldiers and some other police had come into the house. I went upstairs in front of the two policemen. They went to the bedroom. Two policemen stood there while I put on my clothes. One of the policemen then asked me did I want to have a wash and shave and I said ‘Yes’. So I went into the bathroom and I cleaned myself up. Then they asked me was I ready to go and I said ‘Yes’. By this time my children had been awakened and were looking over the banisters. I asked the police not to go near one of the rooms where some of the girls were sleeping, or if they did go near the room not to frighten them or disturb them or take them out of the room, but that they could search the room as thoroughly as they wished. They said they would do that. When I got to the bottom of the stairs I met my wife. I kissed her and said I wouldn’t be too long away. The two police then took me away. My wife was annoyed at being left in the house on her own with the soldiers and two police officers (a policeman and a policewoman).

  To Enniskillen police station

  The two police put me into the back of a police car. One sat each side of me in the back seat. There was a third policeman in the car, with the engine going ready to drive me away. While in the car, one of the policemen, to my left, took out a pair of handcuffs and proceeded to handcuff my hands, one across the other. I told him there was no need for that. He said they were instructed to do that. Sitting as I was between two police in the back of a police car, I thought the use of handcuffs in the circumstances to be belittling. The handcuffs were extremely tight. At a later stage I found that the blood had stopped flowing to my hands. By the time I got to Belfast my hands were numb. The police car brought me
from my home to Enniskillen RUC station. I wasn’t taken out of the car there. The car was parked in the forecourt of the RUC station. One of them got out of the car and went into the station. We had to wait there a considerable length of time, about three-quarters of an hour I would say. Three or four other police cars came into the police forecourt as well. I gathered that there were other people like myself in those cars. I couldn’t see who they were, or even make out [anyone] at all, because it was completely dark. The police in the car were extremely friendly to me and spoke about motor cars and driving and things of general interest like that. When the policeman who got out of the car came back, half-an-hour later, he said that things were nearly ready to go. I asked him where we were going and he said we were going to Belfast. He waited, talking again with the rest of the policemen about cars, as he seemed interested in that.

  Castlereagh Interrogation Centre

  We set off from Enniskillen in convoy. I made [it] out to be about four cars in all. We were driven direct from Enniskillen to Castlereagh police station in Belfast. The police on the way did nothing, I could say, harmful to me; in fact they were very friendly to me.

  When we arrived at Castlereagh police station, the car was driven up to a small side-door and I was taken out of the car and brought in through the side-gate. When inside the handcuffs were opened and taken off me by the same policeman who had put them on. I was then brought into an office inside of a hut-type building. A sergeant there asked me to take out all personal belongings that I had in my pockets. I had a pound note, a chain and a miraculous medal. The watch was taken off my arm, the ring was taken off my finger and shoe-laces were taken out of my shoes. These were put in a sealed envelope. The reason why I had not anything else in my pockets was that before I left home in Enniskillen I removed all other articles, my diary and personal letters and other items like that and I left them on the table back home. The policeman then filled in a personal form concerning my name, age, date of birth, address, family, number of children, names of children, etc. I was then taken by another policeman and stood up. He frisked me from head to toe to make sure that I had no other possessions.