M62 coach bombing

"Judith Ward" redirects here. For the Pennsylvania politician, see Judy Ward.

M62 coach bombing
Part of the Troubles
Aftermath of the M62 coach bombing
LocationBetween junctions 26 and 27 of the M62 motorway, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Coordinates53°44′36″N 1°40′07″W / 53.74333°N 1.66861°W / 53.74333; -1.66861
Date4 February 1974; 50 years ago (1974-02-04)
c. 00:20[1]
Attack type
Time bomb
Deaths12 (9 soldiers, 3 civilians)[2]
Injured38 (soldiers and civilians)
PerpetratorProvisional IRA

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]

  1. ^ "Memorial Service Remembers the Victims of M62 Coach Bombing 45 Years On". The Halifax Courier. 6 February 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  2. ^ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  3. ^ "Responsible for Wrongful Jailing of Guildford Four". The Irish Times. 7 April 2001. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ Encyclopedia of Terrorism ISBN 978-0-313-30895-6 p. 443
  6. ^ "False Confessions and Dodgy Evidence: The Innocent Inmates Locked up For Years in Yorkshire". Leeds Live. 20 September 2020. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  7. ^ "M62 Bomb Blast Memorial Unveiled". BBC News. 4 February 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  8. ^ "IRA Groupie Jailed for Coach Bomb Sought Folklore Fame". The Guardian. 22 March 1991. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  9. ^ "Regina v Ward (Judith): CACD 15 July 1992". swarb.co.uk. 25 November 2020. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  10. ^ "'There are Times When I Wish I Was Back in Jail'". The Independent. 1 October 1996. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  11. ^ "Hunt for Relatives of IRA's Victims". Manchester Evening News. 10 January 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  12. ^ "Changes in Relation to Miscarriage of Justice". lawteacher.net. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  13. ^ "BBC: Examining Justice in the UK". BBC News. 13 September 2005. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  14. ^ "Tragedy On The M62". BBC News. 17 April 2008. Retrieved 4 February 2021.


Cite error: There are <ref group=n> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=n}} template (see the help page).