The Case of Danny McNamee

The prosecution attempted to smear Mr. McNamee by alleging that his defence was paid for with IRA money. This was because an American judge had been invited by the family to observe the trial, and there were several US experts standing by. Mr. McNamee's solicitor was forced to take the stand to testify with regard to this. The fact that Mr. McNamee hails from Crossmaglen, a village of strong nationalist sentiment, was also used against him. However it was accepted that there was no evidence whatever linking him to the republican movement in general or the IRA in particular. No surveillance or Public Interest Immunity certificates were brought forward. Other smear tactics were used during the course of the trial - at one point the Prosecution QC waved a Sinn Fein election leaflet about and declared that it had been found in Mr. McNamee's flat. The leaflet had never been presented as evidence and when challenged the Prosecution could not provide any information about it - but in the minds of the Jury the damage was done.

The actual evidence amounted to three fingerprints alleged to be Mr. McNamee's which were said to have been located on one bomb and in two arms caches found in England in the early 1980's. At his trial and since that date Mr. McNamee has consistently argued his innocence. He had no hesitation in taking the witness stand, never availed himself of his right to silence and answered the questions put by the police. His family and close friends have supported him. The Late Cardinal O'Fiach lent his voice to those calling for a reinvestigation as did the late Brian Lenihan, TD. Seamus Mallon, deputy leader of the SDLP attended part of the 1987 trial and stated publicly that there was cause for concern.

Channel Four TV requested a reinvestigation of all of the evidence both circumstantial and forensic. They also required that new evidence be brought forward if that was at all possible. What follows is a brief description of the case against Mr. McNamee and some of the new evidence that has come to light since his trial. We are embargoed from presenting the full extent of the new evidence until the broadcast of 'Trial and Error'

The Case Against:

The circuit boards comprised one which was found in the arms cache and the other - a fragment of circuit said to have been discovered after the bomb explosion at Hyde Park in 1982. Mr.Alan Feraday, the Crown's main scientific witness, said that the two were matched in design 'artwork' and were therefore made by the same master bombmaker. The prosecutions entire case was premised on the link from Mr. McNamee's fingerprint to the circuit board in the arms cache and from there to the fragment of circuit board from Hyde Park. He was therefore a master bombmaker.

The fingerprint on the bomb in the London street also proved him a bomb maker.

The prosecution also suggested that Mr. McNamee had faced similar charges in the Republic of Ireland in 1984.

The Case For The Defence

Fingerprint experts are sceptical that Mr. McNamee's fingerprint forms could have resided inside Scotland Yard between February 1984 and August 1986, when he was arrested, without a match being made to the two prints in the arms caches. They find the delay inexplicable in terms of police procedure.

Nor is there any evidence to prove that the two prints were actually on the items as declared by the Crowns forensic expert. The arms caches were meticulously and sequentially photographed down to the most minute piece as the numerous items were disassembled for scrutiny. However when it comes to the two items which had these two pieces of tape on them the police and Crown scientists were unable to say exactly where they were positioned and for some reason no photographs were taken to provide proof. One of the pieces, a short grey electrical type tape, was said by the Crown to have wrapped round circuit boards and a piece of plywood. The Crown excepted that there was a strong likelihood that fragments of wood would remain on the tape. However a forensic examination reveals that on the grey tape there are none.

Further, in 1991 Mr. Desmond Ellis was extradited, in the full glare of the media, from Ireland to this country to stand trial as an IRA bomb maker. His fingerprints literally covered the items in the very same arms cache where one of Mr. McNamee's prints was allegedly found on sticky tape. Mr. Ellis is a self confessed IRA member and had served a ten year sentence in Ireland having been found in active possession of bombmaking equipment including exactly similar home made circuit boards as found in the caches. The British jury acquitted him on the basis that the evidence from the arms caches had already been used to imprison him in Ireland in 1981 and that he had therefore already served his sentence. Mr. Ellis has come forward and has been interviewed in the 'Trial and Error' programme where he states that he was the manufacturer of the items which Mr. McNamee was accused of making. All the forensic evidence backs this up.

In the course of the investigation documents were discovered which prove that the police and prosecution knew of the existence of Desmond Ellis and that the evidence pointed to him fully 4 years before Mr. McNamee's arrest. They had matched prints in the arms caches to Ellis. In clear breach of their legal responsibilities they deliberately did not disclose this to Mr. McNamee's defence at the 1987 trial or the appeal in 1991.

The circuit board fragment allegedly found after the Hyde Park explosion and presented by the Crown as the link between McNamee and an actual explosion was never forensically tested for explosive contamination although other items from the scene of the explosion were subjected to such tests.

The Crown's chief forensic scientist in the case, Mr. Alan Feraday, upon whom so much depended as to the integrity of his theories and the integrity of himself as an expert witness, has since been severely criticised by the Lord Chief Justice in the case of R v. Berry (1991). Mr. Feraday was brought forward as an expert in electronics. He is only qualified to a Higher National Certificate level. The Lord Chief Justice declared that the nature of his evidence was 'dogmatic in the extreme ' and that he should not be allowed to present himself as an expert in this field. In a recent development the Home Office has agreed to pay out compensation from the public purse to Mr. Berry because he was jailed on the erroneous evidence of Feraday.

The IRA issued a statement after Mr. McNamee's conviction which said that he was not one of their 'POWs'. He has never appeared on any of the POW lists.

In 1994 Jeremy Corbyn, MP, submitted new evidence to the Home Secretary to request that the case be referred back to the Appeal Court. There has been no news. Recently Mr. Corbyn set down an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons regarding the affair.

Curiously when Mr. McNamee was originally convicted the Daily Mirror stated that his brothers were IRA members. The brothers took the Mirror to court for libel and won substantial damages - the money has been put aside to fight for Mr. McNamee's case.

Update: June 1996

Update October 1996

The Guardian (26 October, 1996)

Danny McNamee was arrested at his home in Crossmaglen in August 1986. He was told that his fingerprint had been found on a piece of masking tape in an arms cache in Salcey Forest in January 1984, and was charged with conspiracy to cause explosions. In December, he was told that a second print had been identified on a piece of tape found in an arms cache in Pangbourne, Berkshire, in 1983.

Danny told police that since he had worked in an electronic repair factory in Dundalk, his fingerprints could very easily be on materials which were eventually used in bomb making. Indeed, the fingerprints of dozens of other people were found in the arms caches and eliminated for similar reasons.

More significantly, the prints of Dessie Ellis, who freely admits to making the devices and denies any involvement by Danny, were all over the Pangbourne devices. He had already been jailed in the Republic after being found in possession of electronic circuitry identical to that found at Salcey.

This evidence was not disclosed by the Crown at Danny's trial, nor at his subsequent appeal. In 1992, Ellis was extradited from Ireland and tried for involvement with those devices. After testifying that he had already served his sentence in the Republic, he was acquitted.

In the spring of 1987, Danny, still on remand, was told that another fingerprint had been found on a battery recovered from a controlled explosion in Paddington, in December 1983. Police records show that the battery was in their possession three days before the bomb was found. New expert evidence shows that the print is not even Danny's.

But these three prints made up the prosecution case against Danny until just before the start of his trial, when the Crown changed the indictment to include the Hyde Park Bomb of July 1982. A broken circuit board allegedly found by a passer-by a week after the explosion appeared to have an identical pattern to the one found at Salcey.

Tellingly, when Dessie Ellis was tried in London, Hyde Park was not included in the indictment. All the publicity surrounding Danny's trial had revolved around the Crown's case that this was the Hyde Park Bomber - the killer of four men, and, most importantly for the tabloids, seven horses.

Danny's troubles began in February 1984, when he was working in Dundalk, just over the border from Crossmaglen. His employers manufactured parts for gaming machines and had asked a Mr Moyna to design a circuit board to prevent such machines from being fiddled. Danny was sent to meet him and both men were arrested by Gardai and charged with involvement in bomb-making.

When the purpose of the circuit boards was established in court the charges were dropped. But this did not prevent Danny's fingerprints being sent on to Scotland Yard. It later transpired that the Irish police suspected Danny's employers of paramilitary involvement. Danny left the firm, deciding that the job was not worth the complications.

But his name was now in the system. The prosecution at his trial in 1987 told the jury that he had been in trouble with the Gardai because of circuit boards. No mention was made of the fact that the accusation had been proven false. So the fact of his arrest by the Gardai must have been fatally important in the minds of jurors.

As for Danny, he is now in HMP Full Sutton, locked up for 22 hours a day, and suffering from the adult form of rickets.

Irish Times: Thursday, 13 March, 1997

McNamee, who is serving a 25-year sentence for conspiring in the 1982 Hyde Park bombings, is in a rapidly deteriorating mental and physical condition, his brother, Mr Francis McNamee, told the Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday.

The committee chairman, Mr Jim O'Keeffe, said it was unprecedented to approach the British Home Secretary in this manner, but there was overwhelming evidence the Crown Prosecution Service had deliberately suppressed facts that would probably have led to McNamee's acquittal in his 1986 trial.

Mr Tom Kitt (FF) was among the members of the committee who urged an all-party visit from the committee to inspect the conditions under which McNamee is held in a special secure unit at Full Sutton, near York.

Mr Kitt said McNamee's solicitor, Ms Gareth Peirce, said he had the best case of any client she ever handled for a referral to the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Senator Seán Maloney (Lab) supported the idea that the committee should inspect the conditions in which McNamee is being held.

"As someone who worked as a psychiatric nurse, I would be seriously concerned about his mental condition," he said.

Mr Francis McNamee told the committee that his brother appeared to have lost two stone in weight and his doctor said he was suffering from a form of rickets because he had no access to natural light.

According to Mr McNamee, prisoners in the special secure unit of Full Sutton are incarcerated for 21 hours, get exercise for one hour and recreation for two. "When they are transferred to Long Kesh, they think they are in a hotel," he said.