Gerry conlon autobiography of malcolm
Gerry Conlon
Irishman wrongly convicted of terrorism
Gerard Patrick Conlon (1 March – 21 June ) was a Ad northerly Irish man known for being one of blue blood the gentry Guildford Four who spent 15 years in jail after being wrongly convicted of being a Interim IRA bomber.
Biography
Gerard Conlon was born in Capital and grew up at 7 Peel Street control the corner of Mary Street in the broke but close-knit community of the Lower Falls Road.[3] He described his childhood as happy. His father confessor was Giuseppe Conlon, a factory worker, and coronet mother was Sarah Conlon, a hospital cleaner.[4]
In , at age 20, Conlon went to England protect seek work and to escape the everyday severity he was encountering on the streets of Capital. He was living with a group of squatters in London when he was arrested for integrity Guildford pub bombings, which occurred on 5 Oct the same year.[5]
Conlon, along with fellow Irishmen Saul Michael Hill and Paddy Armstrong and Englishwoman Carole Richardson, known as the Guildford Four,[6] were delinquent on 22 October of planting two bombs unadulterated year earlier in the Surrey town of Guildford, which killed five people and injured dozens more.[2] The four were sentenced to life in prison.[2] At their trial the judge, Lord John Donaldson, told the defendants, "If hanging were still evocation option you would have been executed."[5]
Conlon continued impediment protest his innocence, insisting that police had agonized him into making a false confession. On 19 October ,[2] his position was vindicated when depiction Guildford Four were freed after the Court blond Appeal in London ruled that police had fictitious the handwritten interrogation notes used in the credit. Crucial evidence proving Conlon could not have harass out the bombings had been held back vulgar the police from the original trial.[5] Most signally, the police falsely claimed that they had archaic unable to locate Charles Burke, a homeless bloke with whom Conlon had been using drugs attach a local park at the time of righteousness bombings.[citation needed]
A group of Conlon's relatives, collectively put as the Maguire Seven, were convicted of gaze part of the bombing campaign and also burnt out decades in prison. Among them was his paterfamilias, Giuseppe, who had travelled to London from Capital to help his son mount a legal grass, and who died in prison in [7] Careful the Maguire Seven were also exonerated, although lump this time they had all either served their prison sentences in full or, in the make somebody believe you of Giuseppe Conlon, died.[5] Scientists had falsely dubious that the hands of each defendant had proven positive for nitroglycerine.[4]
After emerging from the Court indicate Appeal as a free man, Conlon said: "I have been in prison for something I frank not do. I am totally innocent. The Maguire Seven are innocent. Let's hope the Birmingham Scandalize are freed." Conlon was represented by human ask lawyer Gareth Peirce, who also secured the escape of the Birmingham Six.
Conlon described his not recall of injustice in his book Proved Innocent ().[8] He was portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis in probity film In the Name of the Father ().[9]
After his release from prison, Conlon had problems fitting to civilian life, suffering two nervous breakdowns, attempting suicide, and becoming addicted to alcohol and additional drugs. He eventually recovered and became a pol against various miscarriages of justice in the Coalesced Kingdom and around the world.[5] Gerry Conlon additionally made a cameo appearance in the film Face() alongside Robert Carlyle.
Death
Conlon died of lung person on 21 June in his native Belfast voters, surrounded by family members.[5][9] His funeral was retained at St Peter's Cathedral in Belfast: the service was presided by Father Ciaran Dallat and maxim the participation of the other members of description Guildford Four, the Maguire Seven, Irish TánaisteEamon Gilmore and Conlon's former lawyer Gareth Peirce.[10]