Birmingham Pub Bombing Inquests To Start

25 February 2019, 05:24 | Updated: 25 February 2019, 05:30

Long-awaited inquests into the deaths of 21 people in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings are set to get under way.

Hearings lasting up to five weeks will include pen portraits of each of the victims, with the coroner expected to begin with an opening statement on Monday. 

The inquests, which are being held in Birmingham, are the culmination of years of campaigning by relatives of the dead for a full account into the circumstances of what happened on the night of November 21, 1974. 

The question of identifying precisely who the bombers were will not form part of proceedings, coroner Sir Peter Thornton QC has already ruled.

The IRA bombings of the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town pubs was the deadliest post-Second World War attack on the British mainland, until the July 7 London blasts in 2005. 

A botched investigation by West Midlands Police led to the convictions of the Birmingham Six, who were found guilty of the murders a year later. 

But their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991, after the men had spent 16 years behind bars. 

Sir Peter, the former chief coroner for England and Wales, previously said: "The events of November 21, 1974 brought about the tragic deaths of 21 people. 

"These were calamitous events and require full and fair investigation at least as far as the inquest procedures may permit, under law." 

He previously ruled that the hearings will be Article 2 inquests, examining whether the British state or its agents failed to adequately protect the victims. 

As well as those who died on the night, 220 were wounded. Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine was among those killed, will be attending the inquest. 

Speaking before the jury hearings, she has said all the families of the bereaved were seeking was "truth, justice and accountability".