Terry Laverty, the Ballymurphy Massacre and a Miscarriage of Justice
Posted by Jim on February 21, 2015
Terry Laverty was an 18 year old boy on the evening of 11th August 1971 when he went out onto the streets of the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast. Terry and gone out with his older brother, John Laverty, as this was the start of the British army’s Operation Demetrius internment policy in the North of Ireland. There were troops patrolling the streets of Ballymurphy and during the course of the 11th August 1971, 11 innocent civilians were shot and killed. These included Terry Laverty’s older brother John. Terry and John had become separated during the confusion. The soldiers who killed John Laverty apprehended Terry, threatened him, abused him and took him to Gridwood Barracks. There he was violently beaten. He did not know that he brother was dead. He was held for 56 hours.
Terry Laverty made a confession to the RUC following his torture and was sentenced to six months in the Crumlin Road Jail for riotous behaviour. Since that time Terry Laverty has campaigned for the truth regarding the murder of his brother by the British army and his own wrongful conviction and sentence for a crime he has always maintained he did not commit.
In 2009, on behalf of Terry Laverty, KRW LAW LLP applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) for his conviction and sentence to be examined. Together with the NGOs Relatives for Justice and British Irish Rights Watch, we assisted the CCRC on behalf of Terry Laverty. On this basis the CCRC recommended that Terry Laverty’s conviction and sentence to be reviewed by the courts. Today Terry Laverty’s conviction was quashed and his innocence exonerated and justice, at last, was done
Kevin Winters of KRW LAW LLP said “We have been proud to be instructed by Terry Laverty in his quest for justice to overturn an unlawful conviction following the Ballymurphy Massacre 1971 in which his brother John was murdered by the British Army. Terry Laverty has now had his conviction and sentence for a miscarriage of justice reviewed and quashed after 44 years. His innocence of this crime has been proved, the quest he pursued with his family has been exonerated and this decision importantly informs the on-going quest for answers about that dreadful night in 1971 which became known as the Ballymurphy Massacre of which Terry was a victim and which saw the murder of his brother and other innocent civilians.”