Who Murdered Maxine?

It really is incomprehensible to people what it's like to lose

Maxine. Maxine Hambleton was 18 when she

died. Maxine loved Slade, she was in love

with Dave Hall, she had a poster on her bedroom wall.

She was full of life, funny. She was as sharp as a knife.

She was murdered in Birmingham almost 40 years ago, and her family

is still trying to find out who did it.

I can just see her walking away. It's hard, it's very very hard. To

think I was the last one in my family to see her alive and the way

she was... I delivered her to her death.

Maxine Hambleton didn't die alone. In 1974, 21 people were killed and

almost 200 others were injured in the Birmingham pub bombings. The

case remains unsolved. We've been following them since

January. Maxine's brother, Brian, and her sister, Julie, are setting

out their stall to demand a fresh investigation and Justice for the 21

who were killed. Excuse me sir, can I trouble you for

a signature? It's hard it's very hard.

They're only yards from the two city centre pubs where the bombs went

off, and on days like these their small band of supporters really keep

them going. They really are an incredible group

of people. Without them, without any shadow Of a doubt, we wouldn't be

where we are today. The Hambletons want 100,000

signatures on their petition to show police and politians that Birmingham

is behind them. `` politicians. It doesn't sound like such a big ask in

a city of over a million people, but they are still 90,000 short.

Is this an old story in danger of getting lost in a modern city? We've

found someone who doesn't need a history lesson. She was there.

Hello, I'm Maureen, Maureen Mitchell. I was a victim in the

bombing. Oh my god! Below, it is really nice

to meet you. Were you in the tavern in the town?

Yes. Maureen Mitchell was so badly

injured in the Mulberry Bush pub priests gave her the last rites.

This is the first time she's met Julie.

Oh God, you took me by surprise. It's emotional for me because you

were there. You weren't in the same pub, but...

You have been through it, literally, and my heart goes out to you.

Mine does to you. It's different for me because I'm here to tell the

tale. But you have real`life memories of

horror. Real horror and terror. 21 people

died and 182 were injured, but surprisingly few of the families

affected by the bombings know each other.

But there are reasons for that. I went through a very bad stage of

survivor guilt. You do feel guilty that you survived when someone like

Julie lost someone so close. The IRA has always been blamed for

the bombings, but never publicly admitted it. Maureen tells a

different story. We've been to Ireland and been

involved in the peace programme and we've met ex`terrorists or whatever

they like to call themselves. And we know some of them have said they'd

do it again. What he actually said to me was they

never targeted civilians. When I said, "What about Birmingham?", he

said that was a mistake. How could it be a mistake? They had

three bombs, one in one pub, one was in another. The other one didn't go

off. His actual words, well his actual

phrase to me was, "The difference between us and Al`Qaeda was we've

never targeted civillians." it has been a tough conversation to have in

the streets, but it sounds like this was a good time to have it.

If I can support Julie in anyway I will and we will stay in touch now

I'm sure we will. Brian is driving to where he dropped

his sister off on the night of the bombings.

Memories follow him through a city that has moved on from the '70s.

I see it in a different light. I'm kind of stuck in a kind of

limbo. Tonight the pubs are full again and

fear of the IRA has gone, but 40 years ago Birmingham was a very

different place. Irish Republicans were resisting

British rule in Northern Ireland. Some turned to terrorism, planting

bombs at home and on the mainland. The West Midlands was hit more than

30 times in 12 months. Thankfully, there were few casualties, but that

was about to change. You could never have guessed what

was going to happen in the next 60 minutes.

Why would anyone want to kill people like that? Or just kill people? They

were in a pub. The Mulberry Bush at the foot of

Birmingham's Rotunda, and the Tavern in the Town basement bar, where

Maxine was, were blown to pieces. She was one of six children. Julie,

the youngest, was only 11 when it happened. She has one small box of

memories. There is a picture of Maxine.

I think that's a fantastic picture of her because it really captures

her. Look at her smile. She made that dress herself, bless her.

Alongside the memories, there is also a suggestion of how her sister

died. And then I came across this.

She used to love her bangles, Maxine. She wore lots and lots of

bangles and these were her rings. I'm not sure, but I think this is

what she was wearing on the night she was killed, because it's all

bent and damaged and it's all burnt. Starting the campaign has exposed

them to harrowing details they were never told as children. Julie thinks

it's time they were told everything. We don't care how many boxes we have

to open. Whatever it takes, we will do it, because somebody has got to

fight for these people who aren't here to fight for themselves.

News of the campaign is starting to travel, and so must Brian and Julie.

They are on their way to meet a high`profile supporter.

Hello. He's waiting for them in Belfast,

and this will be their first visit to Northern Ireland.

It's ironic to think that we're having to go to Northern Ireland to

get movement. In itself, that is odd.

It is nice to be meeting people at the top, people in power, but we are

only doing all this for one reason. As far as I'm concerned, I don't

want to be messed about. That will be my first line. If he can help,

that will be fantastic, but I'd rather they say so.

Out of the rain, there's a warm Ulster welcome from the First

Minister, Peter Robinson. Hello, Mr Robinson.

I've been reading something of the campaign and ` obviously from a

Northern Ireland perspective we look very closely ` there was massive

empathy and sympathy at the time of the bombing itself. He's no friend

of the IRA. Quite the opposite ` as leader of

the Democratic Unionists he wants Northern Ireland to remain British.

The Hambletons haven't come to talk politics, they just want his help.

I've indicated to the group that if they want to compile a dossier I'll

put it into the hands of the Prime Minister. I believe that, if the

Prime Minister looks at the arguments they're putting forward,

there's every reason why there should be an investigation.

They're not going to argue with that.

It was very interesting, very enlightening.

He listened, he understood, and he has given us some fantastic advice

and guidance. And he is going to try and help us

to the top of the tree, to the Prime Minister.

Belfast has given them a much`needed morale boost.

They can only wait to see if Mr Robinson delivers on his promise.

But, back in Birmingham, it's back to business. This campaign never

stops. It has taken over their lives and their living rooms.

It is extremely time`consuming. We literally eat, sleep, drink it.

We dream about it. But why have they left it so long?

I wasn't strong enough. Grief is a terrible thing, and

anyone who has lost a loved one, to murder, will know what we're talking

about. Some people never recover. Ladies and gentlemen! 416 and a half

years we have been political scapegoats!

There is another reason the families kept quiet.

The police told us from the start that they knew we had not done it!

Six Irish men, jailed for the bombings in 1975, walked free from

the Court of Appeal after 16 and a half years in prison. Judges ruled

their 21 murder convictions were unsafe and overturned them.

I couldn't watch it. As far as we were concerned it was

Like Maxine had been murdered again. The 1991 Birmingham Six appeal had

demolished the credibility of the police investigation.

It was as if all the victims and the survivors were basically made a

laughing stock of. Justice! I don't think people in

there have the intelligence nor the honesty to spell the word, never

mind dispense it! They are rotten! This man is about to take the

campaign in an unexpected direction. My name is Patrick Joseph Hill, and

I'm one of the men more commonly known as the Birmingham Six.

Paddy Hill is the most vocal and recognizable of the Birmingham Six.

He has been out of prison for 22 years and bares the scars of his own

battle for justice. The sooner we get the truth, then

maybe for the living relatives of those who died and for those that

were injured and are still alive, maybe then there will be some

closure. But none of us will have closure until we do know the truth.

He has signed the Hambleton's petition and is a seasoned

campaigner, but would they want his help? We're about to find out.

It's like we're going to meet the enemy.

They hated him for years, and he knows it.

I want to see the Hambletons, I'm looking forward to it. But I'm still

a bit apprehensive, you know? I know how I'm going to take them ` it's

how they're going to take me. From opposite ends of this tragedy,

the three of them are about to meet in the middle. They're leaving

Birmingham for another town blown apart by terrorists.

This is one man of six, who through the years has been vilified and is

infamous for the death of our sister and 20 other innocent souls.

We cannot go further forward without doing this.

I understand how those people feel. They have had years of having

someone to focus their anger on, and their anger was focused on us. I

have a similar anger, but my anger is focused on the West Midlands

Serious Crime Squad. There's many questions I want to ask

him. I don't know what order I will ask them in. But...

It is judging him as a character. They've come to Warrington. The Tim

Parry and Jonathan Ball Peace Centre was built in memory of two young

boys who were killed when an IRA bomb exploded in the town 20 years

ago. The charity specializes in bringing people affected by

terrorism together peacefully. They are experts at handling volatile

meetings, and with only a door between Paddy and the Hambletons,

things are tense. Do you want to come in and take a

seat? Paddy, do you want to stay there a second. Sit down. Hello. I

just want to start talking for a few moments if I may. I welcome you to

the centre. Yellow mac I'm glad you're here, face to face, to ask

you what I'd like to ask you and what we was told by the police, that

you was the ringleader of the so`called Birmingham Six and that as

far as I was concerned you killed my sister and all the other 20

innocent. I understand that, I understand that. You don't have to

tell me. I know what they said, and let me tell you something. You may

not believe this, but I have never in my life been asked one question

by the police about the Birmingham pub bombings. Never? Don't get me

wrong ` I am Irish, I am green, I am Republican, I would love to see my

country united, but I had nothing to do with the IRA, and you see, when

it happened, the cops told us right from the start and the words are

burned into my brain. They turned round and told us, we know you

didn't do the bombings. We don't give a BLEEP who did the

bombings. We've got you and that's good enough for us. Neither side sit

comfortably, but after two hours some common ground opens up. Do you

have access to the statements or the trial transcripts, or do your

solicitors?" i have everything you could think of. Could you make them

available to us, please? I already told Anthony last night, you can

have everything because we have it all. I have kept everything. I was

the one who did all the fighting in jail, I done all the writing but I

kept every bit. I have a complete set of everything with my

solicitor's in London. They've been asking the police for that sort of

access for months. I think I'm quite a good judge of character, and I

mean, I could be sitting here still thinking you killed my sister, and

what we've learned? And without going over board, has changed my

mindset, and that's as far as I'm willing to go. Thank you. A couple

of hours has barely scratched the surface of the history between them,

but it has exposed the damage done to both sides. The trauma has taught

me apart. My mother... My kids ended up in homes and everything. They

ended up moving house nine Times in 11 years. They did not even know

what name they were using. My family, you know? The meeting has

ended hopefully, if not happily. Paddy's offer to help has opened up

a new channel for the campaign. If we can have access to his papers

through his solicitors, that would turn everything upside down. Does

this mean Paddy has won them over? It's the hardest thing I've ever had

to do. It's still hard for us. It's in everyone's psyche, isn't it, that

he was the ringleader and he did it, so for us to do what we've done is

absolutely profound. I feel absolutely numb. I can't believe

I've just met and spent time with the man I've always been told and

believed has murdered my sister, but if it wasn't for the fact for my own

investigation that we've done, which are comparable with what he says to

us, I couldn't have sat here for the length I time I have done. Put my

question back in. very intense, but I'm glad we had it

and hopefully it'll help them understand things better rather than

just believing everything that they've been told for nearly 40

years. And also one of the things I said in there to them is you have

got to get to members of Parliament. We have enough of them in the West

Midlands to get up and start asking questions. But the police didn't

find any answers after the second investigation in 1994. We have done

every possible thing that we can to bring the perpetrators of that crime

to justice. And the conclusion that has been reached, and I don't need

to read it to you again, is that there is insufficient evidence for

proceedings to be taken. If they'd done everything that was humanly

possible, then how come the perpetrators are still out there

with their liberty? At the very top of this building, West Midlands

Police commanders are taking the Hambletons' questions and

frustrations seriously. No promises have been made but the door to a

fresh investigation has been opened just a little. We've been gathering

together all of the material from the investigations that took place

in 1974, the latter investigations around the Court of Appeal time in

the late '80s and then the further work that was done in the '90s.

That's a massive amount of paperwork. A task force from the

Counter Terrorism Unit has spent the past year piecing it all together at

a top`secret location. None of this has been shown on television before

and even now detectives insisted on filming it themselves. I fully

understand and appreciate, having spoken to them, some of the pain

they carry, having gone for so long not knowing all of the circumstances

that surround this case. We'll go where the evidence goes in time and

we'll go with reinvestigating if that's the right thing to do. If

there's no hope, then clearly we'll need to make that decision and we'll

need to explain it. But his predecessors messed up. The

evidence they gathered was ruled unsafe by the highest court in the

land. What hope is there? It's very much on record, isn't it, that the

original work was found to be flawed by the Court of Appeal? The approach

that was taken to managing families in these types of cases is very

different today than it was then, and it's right that we have a much

closer relationship with them. We're definitely doing this because it is

the right thing to do and it's right that we should be able to answer

their questions in time." The Hambletons are running out of

patience with the police. But Paddy's come through with his

promise and has invited them to his solicitor's office in Camden. If

they have information that can provide some answers to some of our

questions, it will be a truly remarkable moment in our campaign

for justice. They're about to meet someone who

thinks it's remarkable they've never been shown any evidence. I brought

back enough boxes that I thought we could get started but I did not want

to overwhelm you. There are a lot more. The renowned human rights

lawyer Gareth Peirce got Paddy out of jail and has every scrap of

paperwork, over 200 Boxes' worth. Maybe this is useful for you to take

away with you as well, because it helps you keep track of what the

evidence was. But where do they start? We'd like to know everything.

We have a right to know everything. The lawyer agrees. I think they have

a completely reasonable, appropriate, just expectation, and

that's simply to be told the truth, be given the data that exists.

That's not a big ask. It looks like they've got a lot of reading to do.

Thank goodness for Gareth and what Paddy's done to make things

available to us. It is a very odd alliance, something we would never

have conceived prior to 12 months ago, but as the old saying goes,

needs must, and we are ` for want of a better expression ` fighting for

the same cause, looking for the same answers. Looking for the same

answers. But should they really be doing their own detective work? The

police exist to investigate ` they're paid enormous sums, they're

given enormous resources, they're given exceptional powers over the

rest of the citizens of this country. They've failed in a

spectacular way, failed these families in a disgraceful way, and

so far as I can detect, they haven't owned up to the families the ways in

which they failed. Let alone any analysis of how they believe they

might succeed. As the other half of this odd alliance, what does Paddy

think they should do next? There is some good members of Parliament out

there, and there is some good police officers as well, and I have no

doubt that as time goes on, hopefully in the near future

someone's going to step up and come out with the truth. Let's get it

done once and for all and hopefully not only for the victims, but it

will also give us and our families closure. The Hambletons have taken

some important and difficult steps this year, learning a lot about the

case and campaigning. If you had told us 24 months ago we were going

to meet Paddy Hill, we'd have said you were off your rocker.

The Prime Minister now knows about Justice four The 21. He's reading

Brian and Julie's dossier, and they expect an update on the police

review in the new year. The anniversary makes November a

difficult month, but this year has been about moving forward. I've

always had the sense that the people in power ` MPs, governments, the

police ` think that we would probably only last five minutes, but

we're still here ` we won't go away. I don't know how long I'll be on

this planet for, but I will be fighting this until the day I die.

Sign the petition, folks! We need the people of Birmingham to stand

up, to come out and support our campaign. We need the whole of the

UK to come out and support our campaign, said that we, all a group,

can force the hands of the authorities to bring the truth out

with several, and for justice to be served and to be seen to be done.

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