After that I was taken to a cell, again another hut-type cell block. I was put into cell No. G8 which was quite a comfortable place really. In the cell I had an iron bed, red padded chair, two blankets, two white starched sheets. There was no daylight that one could see from inside the cell. There was a light in the cell, central heating and air ventilation. I was left in the cell for approximately twenty minutes.
Medical examination
I was then taken from the cell by a uniformed member of the RUC and I was brought back to the hut-type buildings that I was first in where my belongings were taken from me. A room in that hut was used for medical inspection and there I met a doctor. He was extremely friendly and helpful and asked me did I want a full examination. I told him ‘No’. He asked me was there anything else I would like to complain about. I said that I had a strong cold in my chest. He asked me had I received treatment for such a cold before. I said that I had received mystecian capsules. He asked me had I ever got Penbritin. I said I had but that they were not much use in the past. He said he would try them again. He counted out twenty-four capsules to be taken two a time four times a day so that the total dose would last for three days and if I wanted to see him again then to ask the police and he would come again. He then filled in his own medical report from appearance that I was one hundred per cent. I signed the report and I was then taken back to my cell.
Finger prints
About twenty minutes later I was then taken from my cell, again by a uniformed member of the RUC. I was brought into another room in the original block. There I was told that I had to get my finger prints taken. I recognised two of the plain-clothed policemen there as being from ... The third I had never seen before. I know one of the men there to have been Detective ... from ... I only know the other plain-clothed man by sight. My finger prints were taken in duplicate, from both hands; went through each finger on two occasions. They did the palms of my hands. They did my hands with my fingers pressed together and my hand open. Having completed that, I was given a spirit substance to clear the ink off my hands. I was then brought to wash them. I was then brought back to the cell, G8. I was photographed in my cell by two men in plain clothes.
First interrogation
I wasn’t very long back in my cell when it was opened again and I was brought again by a uniformed RUC man to be introduced to a plain clothed detective. He was a very tall man ... He had a beige folder under his arm. Behind him was another fairly tall man, very well-built detective wearing a brown suit. He was older than the ‘taller’ man. At no time did this man assault or ill-treat me but he was present while the ‘taller man’ did assault me.
They led me to a block of interview rooms. I was led into room one. In that room there was a table and three chairs. I was told by the taller of the two detectives to stand in front of the table. He looked at me and he said, ‘So you are Bernard O’Connor. Man but you are an insignificant bastard’. He then put me standing on my toes, made me bend my knees and hold my two arms out in front of me. I was told to stay in that position. When my heels touched the ground, I was hit a slap on the face. At a later stage when I had to wipe the sweat from my forehead with my hand, I was also hit a slap on the face for not keeping my hands in the position I was told. Several times I wobbled to my heels and each time I was struck on the face. The ‘tall man’ generally used his right hand to slap the left side of my face. This man proceeded to confront me with various accusations about my life in the past. He was aware of my involvement in the Civil Rights and the People’s Democracy, and in fact aware of many other events that took place in my own environment in Enniskillen which had nothing illegal about them. They both referred to my involvement in the Boy Scouts and to many other activities. The other man in the brown suit also wanted me to admit to taking part in several bombings and shootings in Enniskillen, and also to admit that I was involved in bringing injured people in Enniskillen to hospital in the south. Each time I denied these involvements I was again struck in the face by the ‘tall man’. I went through this type of interrogation for approximately three and a half to four hours. My legs were trembling with the strain. The sweat was running freely down my face onto the ground. The ‘tall man’ said he was leaving the room for a drink of water. The older man in the brown suit told him to bring one for me. He came back with three white beakers full of water. The man in the brown suit handed one to me and told me there was no truth drug in it. I drank half of the beaker of water. The man in the brown suit put my beaker back on the window ledge and marked the letter ‘B’ on the side of it.
At the end of the interrogation I was taken back and put back into my cell. A few minutes later a uniformed policeman came along and gave me lunch which consisted of meat pie, beans and potatoes. I was not in much form of eating. I tried to eat some of the potatoes and things. I took two of the Penbritin tablets and a drink of water and lay down on the bed awaiting the next interview.
Second interrogation
About an hour later, I was taken from my cell and brought to interview room five. There I was confronted by two detectives who later classed themselves as CID (Criminal Investigation Department) men. All three told me their names. Two of them I remember as being a Mr ... and a Mr ... The third one I can’t recollect but he had ... They approached the subject in completely different vein to the previous two. They were there, they told me, to help me to make sure that I was treated properly and that I could admit to anything that I had done wrong. They encouraged me to realise that if I had done anything wrong that the best thing to do at that stage would be to tell it, to make an open confession and that an open confession at that stage would maybe even guarantee my release. They told me that in any event, that if I had fringe involvement with terrorists’ activities in Ennniskillen that in the courts they would be extremely lenient on me, firstly because the offences were so long back and, secondly, that the involvement would have been so little anyway that I would get a very small prison sentence. The prison sentence, of course, would be halved because the offences were committed before a certain date, and I would also gain remission, which means that I would be away from my wife and children for a period of two or three years.
They also told me, of course, that, if I didn’t take this course and that I was later on found to be involved in more serious offences, like murder, that there would be nothing else for it but for me to do a prison sentence for approximately thirty-five years; I would not see the outside world in that period, and went on to explain that I should understand what the outside world would be like in thirty-five years, and how I would not be able to adapt myself to a community then.
They then went on quite a religious theme to point out that the Lord looks for his sinners to repent and that this was the time to repent and, if I was willing to confess that I was doing so at the hand of God, that that was the proper thing he wanted me to do and that, if I went to my grave with the offences that the file told them that I had allegedly committed, well then I would have nothing but damnation for the rest of eternity. Again, after four hours of this, it didn’t seem to have any effect, so therefore they brought me back to my cell and there I was brought my tea.
Neither Mr ... nor Mr ..., nor the third man I have just described, physically assaulted me or ill-treated me at any time. My recollection of Mr ... is a man of ... My recollection of Mr ... is a man ... My tea was again something in the line of a fried egg, sausages and beans. I tried to eat as much of the egg as possible and as much of the food as possible because I felt that I needed strength. From the way that the previous two interviews had gone, I felt that they were going to put a terrible strain on me to admit to something that I had nothing to do with.
Third interrogation
After tea I was then taken back again to room five. This time the gentlemen there, whom I didn’t know, were very angry at the fact that I hadn’t accepted the help that the previous people had tried to give me, that they were really doing their best for me, and I was flying in the face of
help by not accepting what they were doing for me. One got to the stage that he would shout at me several times that he knew I was involved, he knew I was a murderer, he knew I was a terrorist, and he knew I was leading all the terrorists and young boys astray. He felt I was a top man in the Provisional IRA and if so from here on I was going to be cracked. He had about two and a half hours or more at this sort of thing. He was disgusted at the end of his interrogation and he again brought me back to my cell. He told me on my way back that I would rue what I had done. The man who conducted this interview was very similar in description to Mr ... He did not physically assault or ill-treat me at any time.
It was during this interview that I heard at least three other people receiving physical abuse as walls shook and I heard people shouting in the room adjoining the one I was in, in the one opposite the one I was in, and in a room some distance away. People were evidently being bashed against the walls and doors, and receiving other ill-treatment which caused them to cry out and roar. I was told by my interviewer not to pass any remarks as this sort of treatment was not for me. I wasn’t ten minutes back in my room when a policeman again came and took me out again.
Fourth interrogation, assault
There I met a young gentleman and he brought me down to interview room number five again, after signing me out of the cell block. There we met another tallish, six foot, CID man. He was wearing ... Both these ... walked into the room and said, ‘Bernard O’Connor, you have refused to help’. I said, ‘I haven’t been involved in anything’. ‘Well’, they said, their job was to prove that I had been. I said they were wrong and the younger of the two asked me what way did I want to get [it]. I asked him what did he mean, and with that he drew out and he hit me a box in the face. He landed me back in the corner against the wall. I was made again to stand up in the middle of the floor by the younger man and was told that was the way they meant. They then started to ask me again to go over the exact same things that the previous people had gone over throughout the day. I again denied all knowledge of them. Each time I kept getting hit in the head by both of them. One of the detectives, the fella in the ... tried to jump across the table and chairs screaming that he was going to kill me. The other one restrained him. They then decided to take me to room number two, which was a much bigger room.
Again there was a table, three chairs and a litter bin. The door was locked behind me from the inside. I was made to stand on my toes, bend my knees and hold out my hands in front of me, like the position the first interviewers had done, by the younger man. I was made stand in that position for about fifteen minutes. I was slapped on the face several times by the younger man, mainly to the cheeks and ears. My shoes were taken from me and kicked around the room by the older man. Several times the fella in the ..., i.e. the older man, hit me punches in the stomach. They both then took off their coats and their ties and rolled up their sleeves. I was told by the younger man that if I wanted to talk I could sit down on the chair. While I refused to talk, they were going to proceed to make me talk. I was kicked around the room by both men, on the legs and buttocks. I was fired around the room from one to the other. I was punched severely in the stomach several times, mainly by the older man. I was made get down on the floor and do ten press-ups. If I let my body touch the floor, I was kicked by the younger man. I was made do ten press-ups. If my heels left the floor again, I was kicked by the younger man on the buttocks. I was again put back on my toes and made stand again with my hands out. This went on and on and on.
Naked
Finally, they decided that it might be even better if I took off my clothes. So I was told to take my trousers off. They then told me to take my underpants off. They then told me to take the rest of my clothes off and I did so, leaving me naked. I was pumped up and down with my head between my knees several times after I was fully clothed again. I was pushed into a corner. The track-suit top which I was wearing was taken off me and put down over my head by the younger man with the arms tied around my neck. I cannot say who tied them around my neck. My nose was closed off with their fingers and my mouth was sealed off with another hand. I couldn’t breathe. During this I heard the older man say, ‘Choke the bastard’. I found even my very stomach trying to come up my throat, until finally I could remember no more for a short stage. I felt I must have fainted for maybe just a minute, or maybe five or ten minutes. I have no idea, but I came round the same two people kicking me in the side. I was made run up and down at the time, jogging and running on the spot. Each time I ran past them they kicked me on the legs and buttocks. They couldn’t get me to run fast enough. The younger fair-haired CID person started to shadow box in front of me. At no time did he hit me in the face with any of his punches until suddenly he would hit me very very hard in the stomach which would land me maybe five or six feet back against the wall with a very loud bang. He also punched me in the clavicle area several times. Again they flung me around the room. At another stage they made me put the clothes back on again. Because I was too slow putting on my clothes, they would kick me on the backs of my legs and buttocks for not being quick enough. The clothes incidentally were soaked, right out to the very jumper I was wearing, with sweat. They were terribly cold going on but, it is a strange feeling, it felt good to cool me down. This took place just before the pumping up and down which I referred to earlier.
Very shortly afterwards, I was made to take off my entire clothes again. In all I was stripped naked on two occasions. On at least three occasions I was kicked for being slow in taking off or putting on my clothes. I was hooded again by the younger man and again choked and tried to be smothered by them both but, except this time, I remember that I definitely didn’t faint out.
Four men
There came, around two or three in the morning of 21 January 1977, two other people who had been doing a similar job on another person like myself in another one of the interview rooms, because I could hear the similar banging and shouting and thumping that was going on similar to my own. One of these clients was ... The other client was much smaller. This means there were then four men in the room apart from myself. The tall black-haired man took me and he spun me around above his head. He spun me round several times and then he threw me through the air. I landed on my back on the ground. When he was spinning me he held me straight up above his head and threatened to break my back on the table. I remember seeing a most beautiful shade of violet for at least half a minute. It would seem that length [of time] and was the most beautiful colour I had ever seen. I was then taken by the same dark-haired man and at another stage he hit me a massive box in the stomach which fired me straight across the room without my feet or anything touching the ground until I spattered against the wall.
In the nude again
I was back in the nude again at another stage. They took my underpants which had been severely soiled with sweat and excretion. They were then put above my head and hung down over my face. I was made run around the room while they mocked and jeered at me concerning my private parts, making references to the fact I had seven children, and then left [me] again standing on my toes with my hands out in a very awkward stance again. I never in my life ever sweated as much as I sweated during that period. At a later stage the two clients who had come in last went out and brought back two fish suppers and two drinks of water for the first two interrogators that started the punishment on me.
Waste paper bin
While they, the first two, sat eating, one of them, the older of them, took the waste paper bin and dumped it down over my head. The litter and paper and cigarette butts went all over the floor. I was made pick up each tiny piece of paper in my hand, one by one, and each cigarette butt had to be picked up in my mouth. If I wasn’t doing it quick enough, again I was getting kicked by both of the first two interviewers. When they were finished their fish supper, one of them, the younger of the two, came over to me with a white plastic beaker of water and asked me did I want a drink. I was extremely thirsty and would have been very deli
ghted to get a drink. I said ‘Yes’. He handed the drink into my hand and with the other hand he smacked it out of my hand and sent it flying over the floor. I was then made get down on the floor on my hands and knees and lick the water off the floor. I was delighted even to get it like that.
Threat of assassination
Finally at the end of, I would say, five hours or so of this sort of treatment, they threatened to put me into a car and drive me to the top of the Shankhill Road where they would have already informed the UVF, and let me free and that would solve all their problems. It was the first two interviewers said this. (The other two, i.e., the last two, left after bringing the fish suppers but came in from time to time.) They brought me outside to do this, but walking past the hut where the cells were, I was brought in and put into my cell. The parting word from the younger of the first two plain-clothed detectives was that, 1. he would get me himself, and 2. if he didn’t get me, he would drive the car for the other person, i.e. the older detective, to shoot me. That was about four o’clock in the morning of 21 January 1977. All four interviewers last described had frequently used the word ‘fuck’ to me.
State Violence Page 8