Eight young men, Anthony Garland, Hugh McLaughlin, Stephen McMullen, Michael Hugh Beck, Daniel Pettigrew, Ciaran McAllister, Brendan McCrory and James Morgan, allege that they were ill-treated in incommunicado detention at Castlereagh Holding Centre in connection with bomb attacks in Belfast on security forces in the summer of 1991. All were charged on the basis of statements which they signed during interrogation, in the absence of their lawyer, and which they allege they were coerced into signing after being physically and/or mentally ill-treated or threatened. James Morgan was tried and convicted in March 1993, and sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment. The trial of the other seven is due to start on 6 September 1993.
