4 February 1974; 50 years ago (1974-02-04) c. 00:20[1]
Attack type
Time bomb
Deaths
12 (9 soldiers, 3 civilians)[2]
Injured
38 (soldiers and civilians)
Perpetrator
Provisional IRA
v
t
e
The Troubles in Britain and continental Europe
1970 – 1981
Aldershot bombing
Old Bailey bombing
King's Cross & Euston bombings
Westminster bombing
M62 coach bombing
Parliament bombing
Tower of London bombing
Guildford pub bombings
Woolwich pub bombing
Birmingham pub bombings
Pillar box bombings
Talbot Arms bombing
Bristol bombing
Carlton Tower and Portman Hotel shootings
Caterham bombing
Hilton bombing
Piccadilly bombing
Walton's bombing
Biddy Mulligan's bombing
Balcombe St siege
West Ham attack
Olympia bombing
Airey Neave killing
Glasgow pub bombings
Brussels bombing
Chelsea Barracks bombing
1982 – 1998
Hyde & Regent's Park bombings
Harrods bombing
Brighton hotel bombing
Rheindahlen bombing
Operation Flavius
1988 Netherlands attacks
Glamorgan barracks bombing
Deal barracks bombing
Wembley bombing
Roermond killings
Lichfield shooting
Carlton bombing
London Stock Exchange bombing
Downing Street mortar attack
Paddington & Victoria bombings
London Bridge bombing
Baltic Exchange bombing
Staples Cnr bombing
Sussex Arms bombing
Stoke Newington bomb
1992 Manchester bombing
Warrington bombings
1993 Harrods bombing
Camden bombing
Bishopsgate bombing
Finchley Rd bombings
Heathrow mortar attacks
Docklands bombing
Aldwych bombing
1996 Manchester bombing
Osnabrück attack
See also: The Troubles in Ireland and Assassinations during the Troubles
The M62 coach bombing, sometimes referred to as the M62 Massacre,[3] occurred on 4 February 1974 on the M62 motorway in northern England, when a 25-pound (11 kg)[n 1] 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.[6][7]
Ten days after the bombing, 25-year-old Judith Ward was arrested in Liverpool while waiting to board a ferry to Ireland.[8] 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 scientists had deliberately withheld information from her defence counsel at her October 1974 trial which strongly indicated her innocence.[9] As such, her conviction was declared unsafe.[10]
Ward was released from prison in May 1992, having served over 17 years of a sentence of life imprisonment plus thirty years.[11] Her wrongful conviction is seen as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history.[12][13]
The M62 coach bomb has been described as "one of the IRA's worst mainland terror attacks" and remains one of the deadliest mainland acts of the Troubles.[14]
^"Memorial Service Remembers the Victims of M62 Coach Bombing 45 Years On". The Halifax Courier. 6 February 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
^Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
^"Responsible for Wrongful Jailing of Guildford Four". The Irish Times. 7 April 2001. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
^Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles ISBN 978-1-840-18504-1 p. 434
^Encyclopedia of Terrorism ISBN 978-0-313-30895-6 p. 443
^"False Confessions and Dodgy Evidence: The Innocent Inmates Locked up For Years in Yorkshire". Leeds Live. 20 September 2020. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
^"M62 Bomb Blast Memorial Unveiled". BBC News. 4 February 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
^"IRA Groupie Jailed for Coach Bomb Sought Folklore Fame". The Guardian. 22 March 1991. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
^"Regina v Ward (Judith): CACD 15 July 1992". swarb.co.uk. 25 November 2020. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
^"'There are Times When I Wish I Was Back in Jail'". The Independent. 1 October 1996. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
^"Hunt for Relatives of IRA's Victims". Manchester Evening News. 10 January 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
^"Changes in Relation to Miscarriage of Justice". lawteacher.net. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
^"BBC: Examining Justice in the UK". BBC News. 13 September 2005. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
^"Tragedy On The M62". BBC News. 17 April 2008. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
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