Landmark judgement on treatment of ‘Hooded Men’ in 1971

By Alan Rodgers

THE UK’s Supreme Court has judged that the treatment to which the Hooded Men were subjected following their internment 50 years ago would be characterised today as ‘torture.’

In a landmark judgement this morning, the Court also ruled that a decision by the PSNI to discontinue their investigation into the allegations of torture against men was ‘unlawful.’

Beragh man, PJ McClean, who died in 2019, was among the 14 who launched legal challenges against their treatment by the British army in 1971.

“It is likely that the deplorable treatment to which the Hooded Men were subjected at the hands of the security forces would be characterised today, applying the standards of 2021, as torture. There is a growing body of high judicial authority in support of this view,” the Judgement stated.

“This treatment was administered as a matter of deliverate policy by the law enforcement agencies of the state. Those who administered it were acting under orders and were trained as to how it should be inflicted. It was authorised at a very high level including ministerial authorisation and was, therefore, an administrative practice of the state.”

The judgement followed a three-day hearing before the Supreme Court in June of this year.

Darragh Mackin, solicitor for the applicant, Francis McGuigan, and the majority of the Hooded Men, said the decision is a ‘landmark victory’ for the Hooded Men.

“Since 2014, they have actively contested the decision by the PSNI not to investigate the allegations of torture. It was always clear that the initial investigation by the PSNI was nothing more than a window dressing exercise which only sought to pay lip service to the term ‘investigation,” he said.

“The Hooded Men have also known that the treatment inflicted on them was that of torture. Today. the Supreme Court has confirmed that the techniques to which our clients were subject to can, and indeed must, be chracteised by the srandards applicable today as that of ‘torture.’