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The M62 coach bombing, sometimes referred to as the M62 Massacre, occurred on 4 February 1974 on the M62 motorway in northern England, when a 25-pound (11 kg) Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb hidden inside the luggage locker of a coach carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel and their family members exploded, killing twelve people (nine soldiers and three civilians) and injuring thirty-eight others aboard the vehicle.
Ten days after the bombing, 25-year-old Judith Ward was arrested in Liverpool while waiting to board a ferry to Ireland. She was later convicted of the M62 coach bombing and two other separate, non-fatal attacks and remained incarcerated until her conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1992, with the court hearing Government Forensic science had deliberately withheld information from her defence counsel at her October 1974 trial which strongly indicated her innocence. As such, her conviction was declared unsafe.
Ward was released from prison in May 1992, having served over 17 years of a sentence of life imprisonment plus thirty years. Her wrongful conviction is seen as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history.
The M62 coach bomb has been described as "one of the IRA's worst Great Britain terror attacks" and remains one of the deadliest mainland acts of the Troubles.
The explosion reduced the rear of the coach to a "tangle of twisted metal", trapping several casualties within the debris and throwing individuals and severed limbs up to upon and around the motorway.p. 240, Williams & Head No other vehicle was damaged in the explosion, although the vehicle travelling immediately behind the coach is known to have ploughed into the scattered debris of the rear of the coach. The coach itself travelled for more than before the driver, 39-year-old Roland Handley (himself injured by flying glass), was able to steer the coach to a halt upon the hard shoulder.
One of the first motorists to offer assistance after Handley had navigated the coach to a halt was John Clark, who later recollected seeing a young man lying upon the motorway with one leg partially severed and the body of a child, stating: "It was just absolutely ... unbelievable. It was dark, so you couldn't see how bad the injuries really were, but it was the smell of it. It was absolutely total carnage."
The entrance hall of the nearby westbound section of the Hartshead Moor service station was used as an impromptu first aid station for those wounded in the blast. Off-duty staff at Bradford Royal Infirmary and Batley General Hospital were also contacted and encouraged to report for duty in response to the emergency.
Politicians from all three major parties called for "swift justice" against the perpetrator or perpetrators and the IRA in general.p. 241, Williams & Head Within twenty-four hours of the explosion, demands had been heard in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that Irish citizens entering Britain be required to carry passports and other forms of identification at all times. The Secretary of State for Defence, Ian Gilmour, confirmed on 5 February these existing laws were to be reviewed.
The construction of the explosive device was typical of those used by the IRA. An analysis of fragments of the timer recovered at the scene of the explosion revealed the device may have been set to detonate up to one hour before the explosion. As the vehicle had stopped in Oldham, Manchester Chorlton Street coach station, and finally Huddersfield to collect returning service personnel and their families prior to travelling towards Catterick Garrison, a possibility existed the device could have been placed in the vehicle in any of these three locations, although the timing of the explosion indicated the device would unlikely have been placed upon the vehicle in Huddersfield. Blind Justice: Miscarriages of Justice in Twentieth-century Britain p. 362
Investigators initially remained open-minded as to whether the perpetrator was a member of a UK-based cell, or had travelled across from Northern Ireland to commit the atrocity, as had been the case with regards to a previous IRA bombing at the Old Bailey.
Police quickly discovered the address on Ward's driving licence was false. She was then asked how she intended to travel to Ireland with very little money in her possession. In response, she claimed to have intended to telephone a friend in Ireland who would send her the money. The same evening, with Ward's consent, forensic scientist Frank Skuse obtained Cotton swab from her hands and fingernails to conduct . These tests revealed what Skuse described as "faint traces" of upon one of her nails. Error of Judgement p. 40 A subsequent forensic examination by Skuse of a caravan in which Ward had recently lived prior to her arrest also revealed what he concluded to be traces of nitroglycerin upon a duffel bag and other personal possessions. The Birmingham Bombs p. 31
According to police, shortly thereafter, Ward—who is known to have suffered from a personality disorder Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles p. 435—made a verbal statement claiming to have been a member of the IRA since 1971, but that "after the I just want out". The following day, she was transferred to the custody of West Yorkshire Police to be questioned further with regards to the M62 coach bombing.
According to Ward's confessions, she was an "IRA volunteer" who had planted the M62 coach bomb in the luggage compartment of the coach while the vehicle was parked at Manchester Chorlton Street coach station. The luggage compartment had already been open when she, "shaking like a leaf", placed the bag containing the bomb between "a few army issue bags" in the luggage compartment. She had then turned and "legged it" out of the station, expecting the bomb to explode in twenty minutes. An Gael - Volume 6, Issue 2 (1989) p. 7
By 25 February, West Yorkshire investigators had established that Ward's employment with a travelling circus had taken her to the market town of Chipping Norton in the Cotswold Hills on 3 February. Over a dozen independent witnesses were able to confirm this fact, thus meaning Ward could not have physically placed the bomb upon the coach as she had previously claimed. According to official records, on this date, Ward asked to see a Detective Superintendent Weight, exclaiming: "I want to see you about that statement I made to the other officers. I want to change it. I didn't put the bomb on that bus." The records further state Weight replied, "Yes, I know that." Ward then changed her statement to claim she had transported the bomb from Derby to a house in Longsight and that, as the circus was to travel to Chipping Norton on the intended date of the bombing, she informed the two occupants of the house they would "have to do" the bombing. Ward then volunteered she "knew something about the Latimer job" she also wished to confess. R. v. Ward 1993. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) pp. 15-17 The following day, in the presence of George Oldfield, Ward wrote a confession claiming culpability for transporting the explosives used in the September 1973 Euston bombing. R. v. Ward 1993. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) p. 16
Ward also claimed to have conducted a string of operational activities for the IRA in both Belfast and mainland Britain in 1973 and 1974, to have been married to a deceased IRA member named Michael McVerry, and to have borne a child to another IRA member. However, although a supporter of Sinn Féin and likely knowing several individuals involved in IRA activity, R. v. Ward 1993. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) p. 19 she had no firm connections with the IRA. The IRA would subsequently issue a statement confirming this fact.
The following month, Ward was shown a written copy of the statement she had provided on 16 February. She emphatically denied sections of the statement, insisting several claims she had supposedly made had been fabricated by investigators, although she did concede she had made some false claims regarding transporting what she believed to be explosives in a direct response to pressure from a Detective Superintendent Moffatt. R. v. Ward 1993. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) p. 18
On 11 and 18 June—after Ward had been formally charged with various atrocities including the M62 coach bombing and without the knowledge of her solicitor—Oldfield again questioned Ward. The records of these interviews were removed from police files and transferred to the Metropolitan Police Service for security reasons. R. v. Ward 1993. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) p. 40 Early the following month, Ward attempted suicide by cutting her wrist shortly after being diagnosed with severe depression and on 24 August, a night orderly officer observed her attempting to injure her wrists by incessantly rubbing them against her bed straps. R. v. Ward 1993. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) pp. 50;53
In February 1971, Ward enlisted in the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC). Her basic training saw Ward spend approximately four months at Catterick Garrison before she was transferred to Aldershot, Hampshire on 5 August 1971 to serve as a communications centre operator. Two months later, Ward went absent without leave and returned to Dundalk, where she briefly became engaged to a young man named Sean McKeowan. Although McKeowan himself was disinterested in any form of politics, Ward is known to have frequently drunk in Dundalk pubs where, according to acquaintances, she frequently socialised with men affiliated with the Official IRA. She is also known to have briefly lived under the alias Teresa O'Connell, on one occasion listing her age when briefly detained by the Royal Ulster Constabulary as 14 years, eight months. The Cartel: Lawyers and Their Nine Magic Tricks p. 170
The following year, Ward returned to England, being discharged from the WRAC shortly thereafter. She briefly worked in a restaurant before returning to Dundalk to again work as a riding instructor in August 1972. She returned to England the following summer; initially residing with family in Stanbury Place, Offerton, Stockport. Blind Justice: Miscarriages of Justice in Twentieth-century Britain p. 364
On 26 August 1973, Ward was discovered sleeping rough on the concourse of Euston railway station and detained for questioning. Shortly thereafter, she obtained employment as a chambermaid at a hotel near the Elephant and Castle. This employment lasted until she was dismissed on 10 November. The same day, Ward travelled to Ireland via Holyhead.
Ward's appeals state that in the days prior to her arrest, she had most often slept rough around Euston station and Primrose Hill with a man named Ernest Mayall and a woman referred to in her appeal transcripts as a "Welsh people girl", both of whom she later claimed to have first met in London on 8 February. Four days later, she and Mayall travelled by bus to Cardiff, with Ward leaving the duffel bags she had purchased in Chipping Norton inside a freight container. The following day, Ward hitchhiked from Cardiff to Liverpool, arriving in Liverpool at approximately 11:30 p.m. on 13 February. She was planning to travel to Newry, Northern Ireland when arrested early the following day. Disclosure in Criminal Proceedings p. 1
Although Ward's confessions had been coerced and distorted by some members of the investigating team prior to her trial, all the content within her confessions was presented by the prosecution as being "backed up by overwhelming scientific evidence". R. v. Ward 1993. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) p. 20
Prosecutor John Cobb QC described Ward as an IRA agent, active in "major operations" on mainland Britain. The prosecution's case was almost completely based on her own claims of culpability (which Ward had retracted prior to her trial), weak circumstantial evidence and what would later be described as "demonstrably wrong" scientific evidence delivered by four witnesses who testified on behalf of the prosecution, which had sourced from the Griess tests conducted by Skuse and others.
To support the prosecution's contentions, several witnesses testified as to verbal statements Ward had made indicating her sympathies with the concept of Irish republicanism. A member of the Metropolitan Police Service was also called to testify as to statements Ward had made following her August 1973 arrest for vagrancy in London in which she had claimed to police to have "carried out assignments" for the IRA, but was not a member of the organisation. On 23 October, Ward repeated her disprovable claims to have been married to the deceased Michael McVerry.
Ward's defence attorney, Andrew Rankin, QC, refuted the prosecution contentions, insisting the forensic evidence presented could be easily explained as sourcing from cross-contamination and describing his client as a "female Walter Mitty" character, for whom fantasy had become reality, who was perhaps seeking notoriety in Irish folklore. Referencing the "rambling, incoherent and improbable" statements Ward had made to police,In the words of her barrister Andrew Rankin QC, p. 242 Williams & Head Rankin outlined the numerous inconsistencies and alterations she had made which indicated she had not been telling the truth and stressed to the jury the IRA would be extremely unlikely to accept or to trust an individual of sheer incompetence and who had, prior to 1974, come to the attention of the police and the Army in both Northern Ireland and England on several occasions. R. v. Ward 1993. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) p. 22
The accuracy of the forensic testimony of the experts who testified that Ward's hands and possessions had tested positive for traces of nitroglycerin was seldom challenged by Ward's defence counsel, who contended she and her possessions may have become cross-contaminated via contact with an acquaintance who had been the original source of the traces of explosive materials. The prosecution witnesses refuted these claims.
Rankin again disputed the sourcing of the traces of explosive material, insisting Ward had inadvertently become cross-contaminated and reiterating his client's ineptitude, vivid fantasy life, and the numerous inconsistencies within her repeatedly altered statements. Rankin then asked the jury to question why, had Ward been active within the IRA, did she not attempt to flee the country following the M62 coach bomb rather than travelling to London, making no attempt to conceal her identity.
Ward remained impassive as the verdict was read aloud, although members of her family—who remained steadfast in their belief of her innocence—burst into tears. She did not appeal her conviction, although she repeatedly protested her innocence throughout her years of incarceration. Although the validity of her conviction was independently reviewed on three occasions between 1985 and 1989, and each review uncovered serious flaws with regards to the evidence presented at her trial and the legal conduct of various individuals prior to and following her confessions, she remained incarcerated at HM Prison Durham before being transferred to HM Prison Holloway in November 1990, where she remained as a Category B prisoner.
In May 1992, Ward's lawyers illustrated the fundamental flaws in the physical evidence presented at her trial before three Court of Appeal judges. Her barrister, Michael Mansfield, QC, contended there had been a "significant and substantial non-disclosure" of evidence and information which had strongly indicated her innocence, and that of the 63 interviews West Yorkshire Police had conducted with Ward before and after her confession, only 34 had been disclosed at trial. Furthermore, the court also heard that the handling of , boot polish and other commodities in common public use by any individual would produce the same positive results presented at Ward's trial as proof of their having handled—or come into contact with—explosive substances, as contended by Skuse and others. This information was known to forensic experts in 1974, R. v. Ward 1993. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) p. 64 but had also never been disclosed at her original trial, or in the intervening years despite her protestations of innocence and subsequent developments with regards to other uncovered miscarriages of justice.
The evidence presented at Ward's appeal also heard that although police, forensic experts, and prosecutors had withheld multiple documents from the prosecution counsel at her original trial, that of the evidence the prosecution team had been provided access to, the prosecution had themselves withheld much of their own evidence from Ward's own defence counsel. The Crown also heard that although Ward was insistent she had not been subjected to physical violence by interrogators, at the time of her false confessions, she suffered from a severe personality disorder which had arisen from acute loneliness, insecurity and sexual identity conflicts, R. v. Ward 1993. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) p. 83 and that her confessions had been obtained under extreme duress and her desire to simply "be left alone".
The Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that Ward's conviction was "a grave miscarriage of justice"p. 244 Williams & Head and conceded that her confession had ultimately been obtained by law enforcement personnel "under pressure to obtain a confession" from an individual regarding his or her culpability in the atrocities. Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles pp. 434-435 Delivering final judgment at the conclusion of these appeal hearings, Lord Justice Iain Glidewell stated: "Our law does not permit a conviction to be secured by ambush."
Upon exiting the court, Ward shouted to all present, "Eighteen years! Freedom! After eighteen years, it's brilliant!" before being driven to a secret, safe house pending the conclusion of the legal hearings. Shortly thereafter, on 4 June, her conviction was formally overturned. Ward was later compensated for her wrongful conviction.
A memorial to those killed in the M62 coach bombing was later erected at Hartshead Moor service station, where many of the casualties had received impromptu first aid following the explosion. Following a campaign by relatives of the deceased, a larger memorial was later erected several yards away from the entrance hall to the service station, close to an Quercus robur planted in 2009 in memory of the deceased. This memorial stone also bears a plaque inscribed with the names and ages of those who died.
The service station itself is the venue for annual memorial services commemorating those killed, injured and bereaved by the atrocity. These annual services are regularly attended by the Mayors of Kirklees, Calderdale and Oldham in addition to members of the Royal British Legion. A memorial plaque engraved with the names and ages of the fatalities of the M62 coach bomb was also unveiled in Oldham, the home town of two of the fatalities, in 2010.
Ward initially struggled with life as a free woman following the overturning of her conviction, in part because of the lack of a support structure she received from society after she had been formally Exoneration. In 1996, Ward recollected to a reporter that, immediately prior to her release from prison, she was simply "given £35 and a hand-written note to produce at the DSS" before being released from custody with no individuals to offer advice, therapy, or other forms of support. As had earlier been the case with Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four, Ward initially lived with solicitor Gareth Peirce until a secure home could be found for her.
Ward later wrote an autobiography, Ambushed: My Story, detailing her life, conviction, exoneration, and subsequent experiences following her release from prison. She later became a campaigner for prisoners' rights with the Britain and Ireland Human Rights Centre.
In October 1985, Frank Skuse was ordered by the Home Office to retire on the grounds of "limited efficiency" just days after the broadcasting of a World in Action documentary which strongly questioned his competency. Within a year of his retirement, all 350 cases in which Skuse had provided forensic evidence throughout his career had been reassessed.
The actual perpetrator or perpetrators of the M62 coach bombing were never arrested or convicted.
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