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My Father's Watch: The Story of a Child Prisoner in 70's Britain

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Authors: Patrick Maguire, Carlo Gebler
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Category: Book

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Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

1 reviews
Sales Rank: 59743

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.4 x 1.5

ISBN: 0007242131
EAN: 9780007242139
ASIN: 0007242131

Publication Date: May 19, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new book dispatched from stock in the UK

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Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

The Voice of an Innocent June 22, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This is a brilliant book, beautifully written, a record of traumatic events through the eyes of an innocent child. Tuesday 3 December 1974 must rank as the day when the reputation of British justice began its slide into disgrace. On that day nine innocent people, including the author of this book,Patrick Maguire, then aged 13, were taken into police custody. The others were his parents, Paddy and Anne, his two uncles, his brother and a family friend Pat O'Neill who was only at the house so that Anne Maguire could care overnight for his three young daughters while his wife (their mother) awaited her release from hospital.
(Patrick Armstrong and Carole Richardson were also arrested in London that same day. They, like the Maguire 7 are totally innocent). Forensic tests purported to show that six of those taken by the police from the Maguire household had been in contact with nitroglycerine. The one person against whom there was no forensic evidence was Anne Maguire, who according to her nephew Gerard Conlon and his friend Paul Hill, has been involved with them in the Guildford public house bombings on 5 October 1974. The absence of such forensic evidence against their prime suspect must have dismayed the police. No matter. In what I regard as an illegal search of the family home early the next day, the Wednesday, the police managed to recover rubber gloves upon which there was allegedly found traces of nitroglycerine. Those gloves belonged to Mrs. Maguire. All very convenient. Those who know Mrs. Maguire agree with Patrick's description of his mother. She is an outstanding example of Christian charity for her forgiveness of those who tried to destroy her and her family. The late Pope John Paul II awarded her a papal medal for her outstanding work while others in the legal and political establishment still whisper behind their hands that she, like Gerard Conlon and Paul Hill are guilty as charged. Nothing will ever change their minds because they are unable to face up to the truth.
Because Patrick Maguire was only 13 at the relevant time, his legal position was protected by the doctrine of doli incapax, namely that in his case there was a presumption that he was not capable of forming the mental element of the offence charged. No evidence rebutting that presumption was adduced by the prosecution. If Patrick had been properly defended his counsel would have made a submission at the close of the prosecution case that he had no case to answer. No such submission was made. If it had Patrick would have been spared the custodial sentence that has blighted his life and cost him his childhood years. Worse was to follow. The trial judge was John Donaldson, a man hated by the Trade Unions because of his chairmanship of the Industrial Relations Court to which he had been appointed by his Tory pals. One journalist described Donaldson as Mrs. Thatcher's favourite judge and I have no doubt he was. He was a very decent and honourable man, who was doing what he regarded as his patriotic duty as he done during his service in the armed forces during the Second World War. Unfortunately he knew very little criminal law, and his direction to the jury on the doctrine of doli incapax shows he did not understand it; in short his direction on this point is is nothing less than meaningless rubbish. In addition, he failed completely to put the defence of Pat O'Neill to the jury. He was asked to do so at the very end of the summing up by Mr. O'Neill's counsel, and he attempted to do so, doing his incompetent best, in what amounts to about two pages of the transcipt, after what was given in evidence about Mr. O'Neill during a six weeks trial. That was shameful.
Patrick Maguire, ably assisted by Carlo Gebler, very sensibly concentrates in this book on the devastating consequences of these legal errors, rathen than on the errors themselves. It makes compelling reading. It provides an invaluable insight into not merely the conviction and punishment of an innocent, but also into the unfeeling and hostile forces of those individuals who broke the law whilst claiming to uphold it. Unless we learn from the past, the same mistakes will occur in the future.
This book must surely have one great benefit for Patrick Maguire. It will help him to rebuild his life and to release him from the immense pain and suffering imposed upon him by a vengeful State and its pitiless servants. He can live with his conscience; can they?