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

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?

This book is hard to put down once you start reading it. It is a harrowing tale of how appallingly a state can treat innocent citizens in the name of fighting terrorism, and there are parallels to be made with similar government activities amidst anti-terrorist hysteria since 9/11. The most shocking element of the book is how the police are allowed to behave in this brutal way with such limited external control and accountability. How has a so-called civilised state like Britain allowed its police force to behave in this disgraceful way? Patrick Maguire's account is dignified, yet it suppressed enormous rage and anger at him and his family being wrongly jailed and having so much of their lives unjustly taken from them. It is an episode that had to be told, if for no other reason to remind us of one of the most shameful miscarriages of justice in British history, and as a lesson that such events must never happen again.

A book that is impossible to put down.
Funny, sad, horrific, unbelievable.
You know theat Patrick Maguire has had to reach into the very depths of his soul to produce this unique book.
I hope it makes people sit up and take note and never allow this to happen again.
Through this book I hope Patrick can find some peace of his own now.