'He was wearing a bomber jacket. I remember that as he passed the soldier he looked back at me'
Prisoner's appeal for 'third man' C
HRISTY WALSH is in the sixth year of a 14-year prison sentence for possessing a coffee jar bombSomething he has consistently and passionately denied since the first day of his imprisonment. The story he tells is complicated. It involves missing or altered police interview notes, distorted evidence given by key witnesses and incomplete transcripts of the no-jury trial proceedings. Prior to his arrest on thJune 5, 1991, just 10 days before his 28 birthday, he was unknown to security forces. He had no criminal record, had never been arrested and had never been inside Castlereagh Interrogation centre. All that was to change after his encounter with members of a British Parachute Regiment patrol. Mr Walsh, a painter and decorator from Broadway in west Belfast, says he was taking a short-cut through an alley on his way to meet a friend in the Swillybrin bar in the Suffolk area of the city. He was then stopped by a single soldier stationed just off the main Suffolk Road. One civilian – later daubed the ‘third man’ – had already passed the soldier without incident but Christy Walsh was detained just as he was about to leave the alley. He told the Irish News: “The whole demeanour of the soldier was relaxed and his rifle was cradled in his arm. “He did not appear to be under any threat. He did not even ask me my name. It was only when he spotted the coffee jar sitting on the wall that his demeanour changed. He had seemed to have lost interest in me so I attempted to walk on. When he looked at the jar, he grabbed me by the shoulder and dragged me down until my face was almost touching it. I put my left hand on the wall to prevent my face coming in cotact with it.” Mr Walsh insists that, while grabbing out at the wall close to the jar, he must have inadvertently picked up traces of Semtex on his left palm. Four months after being charged and remanded to Crumlin Road Prison, he was taken to Castlereagh where he underwent further interrogation about the coffee jar bomb. “On the third interrogation session, I was beaten to the floor and received injuries to my head, chin, throat, neck, lower back and both legs.” The Irish News, 1st July 1996
Brendan Anderson examines the case of a young man jailed for having a coffee jar bomb and finds some of the evidence raises serious doubts about the conviction ... . His questioning ended only with the issue of a writ of Habeas Corpus. He was to receive an out-of-court settlement for the injuries. Christy Walsh describes his trial in November 1992 as a disaster. The solitary soldier produced a colleague to back up his claims that Mr Walsh had taken the bomb from his pocket. Members of the Parachute Regiment are highly trained assault soldiers and, as their record shows, it is unlikely that Mr Walsh would be alive today if he had produced a bomb in the presence of an armed paratrooper. In evidence, the first soldier claimed he had ordered the accused to place the jar on the wall. He did not know if Christy Walsh had placed the jar on the wall between them, or if he had taken a few steps towards the wall or if he had placed the device several feet behind himself, which, given its position, Walsh would have had to do. The second soldier, the prisoner said, was not in a position to see the incident but was in fact called from around the Suffolk Road corner after the discovery of the bomb. Both soldiers went on to contradict each in evidence. A third soldier told the court he made a statement at the scene of the incident, then another the next day. He then said he made –or at least signed –another statement two months before the trial and more than a year after Mr Walsh’s arrest. A mysterious purple bomber jacket the accused was alleged to have worn and which he had been questioned about at length in Castlereagh received no mention during the trial.
A scenes-of-crime officer actually carried out forensic tests on this garment. However, what is not in dispute is that Christy Walsh was wearing a black coat when arrested. Mr Walsh insists that notes made by interviewing detectives at Castlereagh were tampered with before the trial. “For example, all mention of the man walking ahead of me in the alley was erased by the time I was brought to court. Yet the man’s presence was discussed at Castlereagh. I watched the CID man writing it down and I actually paused to let him catch up.” He said the judge drew an ‘inference’ from his alleged silence during interrogation. This piece of legislation was designed to combat the tactic of refusing to answer questions put by interviewing detectives. In fact, Mr Walsh claims – and his signed statement bears out – that he co-operated fully with police at Castlereagh. During his first interrogation session he actually had to challenge detectives to write down what was being said. He fared no better during his appeal. A fanatic for detail –he has gone to the extent of producing a booklet outlining the “fundamental flaws” in his case –he has retained all papers relating to his trail and appeal and he is convinced that parts of his trial transcript are missing. “There are places in the transcript where I appear to be answering questions that were not asked, he said. Finding the ‘thrid man’ could provide a vital piece in the jigsaw. There is absolutely no suggestion that this person was implicated but if he came forward, his testimony would substantiate Mr Walsh’s story. A the prisoner remembers the incident: “He was older than me and he was heavier than me. He was wearing a bomber jacket. I remember that as he passed the soldier he looked back at me.” “He was framed in bright sunlight and he did not deviate left or right from the middle as he walked to the end of the alley.” Inquiries made by the Irish News have strongly suggested Christy Walsh was not a member of the republican movement. He maintains that he was making a good living while working in the republic and only returned to Belfast in 1986 when a relative was killed. Ironically, the only organisation he ever belonged to was Amnesty International, a group he hopes may someday carry out an investigation into the plight of its former member.