Birmingham Bombings – ITV

We publish below an article appearing on itv.com, concerning a documentary airing this evening across the ITV network.   The programme will air in Scotland at 11.05 pm.

ITV’s Exposure programme will tonight (Monday) reveal evidence pointing to two prime suspects in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings.

For more than four decades, mystery has surrounded the identities of the men who planted the bombs which killed 21 people and injured more than 200.

As recently as last week, the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of coroner Sir Peter Thornton QC, deciding that an investigation into who was responsible would not form part of the inquest into the victims’ deaths.

But now an extensive ITV investigation names former British soldier James Francis Gavin and Michael Patrick Reilly as the prime suspects for planting the bombs. Reilly has never before been publicly named as a suspect. Gavin has been named previously in connection with the bombings but not as a bomb-planter.

The programme, The Hunt For The Birmingham Bombers, which airs at 10.45pm on ITV, features reporter John Ware confronting Reilly about the allegations outside a supermarket in Belfast.

The investigation has built on the work of former Government minister, Chris Mullin, who campaigned for the release of the wrongly convicted Birmingham Six.

Mullin twice interviewed a man who admitted to the bombing on the condition that he would never reveal his name.

And he hasn’t… but through cross referencing information in Mullin’s book with police transcripts and birth records, speaking to witnesses and a former IRA man, journalist John Ware believes the evidence points to Reilly and Gavin.

Reilly, who was a teenager living in Birmingham at the time of the bombing, was interviewed by West Midlands Police in 1975.

He admitted bombing some local businesses in Birmingham and that he knew about the bombings in advance, but he did not admit to being involved. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy and causing explosions.

After his release he moved to Northern Ireland. ITV tracked him down to Belfast where he was confronted with the allegations, which he denies.

Reilly’s solicitor told ITV: “Our client denies all the allegations … and does not intend to respond any further to the unfounded allegations you have made.”

Gavin died in 2002.