Guildford Four man 'made no complaint': Trial told of 'amenable interview' with police

PATRICK ARMSTRONG, one of the Guildford Four released by the Court of Appeal in 1989, made no allegations of ill-treatment by Surrey detectives when interviewed by senior members of the Metropolitan Police, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.

Robert Huntley, then Commander of the Metropolitan Police Bomb Squad investigating IRA attacks in London, told the jury Mr Armstrong made 'confession after admission after confession' during a 'very amenable' interview several days after his arrest in December 1974.

Mr Huntley was giving evidence for the prosecution on the third day of the trial of Thomas Style, 59, a former detective chief inspector; John Donaldson, 57, a former detective sergeant; and Vernon Attwell, 52, a former detective constable. They deny conspiring to pervert the course of justice by manufacturing the notes of interviews with Mr Armstrong and falsely claiming they were contemporaneous to bolster their evidence.

Mr Armstrong was seen by Mr Huntley, Jim Nevill, then a detective chief superintendent, and Peter Imbert, then a detective superintendent and later Metropolitan Commissioner.

According to notes of the interview read to the court, Mr Armstrong admitted IRA membership, confessed to planting the Guildford public house bomb which killed five people, but rejected suggestions he committed the Woolwich bombing; he named the other three members of the Guildford Four.

Mr Huntley said: 'He never hesitated and at no time did he make any complaint about any of my officers or any other officers.' At his trial, Mr Armstrong's lawyers alleged he was badly treated by the Surrey officers, who had written out his statements, and that he been too scared to complain.

The trial continues.