Guildford Four and Maguire Seven - Guildford Four

The Guildford Four were charged with direct involvement with the IRA attacks. They were:

After their arrest, all four defendants confessed to the bombing. These statements were later retracted, but nonetheless formed the basis of the case against them. They would later be alleged to be the result of coercion by the police, ranging from intimidation to torture—including threats against family members—as well as the effects of drug withdrawal. Conlon argues in his autobiography that a key factor in his purportedly coerced confession was the fact that strengthened anti-terrorism laws passed in the early 1970s allowed the police to hold suspects without charges for up to a week, rather than the previous limit of 48 hours, and that he might have been able to withstand coercion had the original time limit been in effect.

They were convicted in October 1975 for murder and other charges, and sentenced to life imprisonment, mandatory for adults convicted of murder. Richardson, a minor at the time of the bombings, received an indeterminate At Her Majesty's Pleasure sentence for murder, but a life sentence for conspiracy. Mr Justice Donaldson, who also presided over the Maguire Seven trial, expressed regret that the Four had not been charged with treason, which then still had a mandatory death penalty. At the time, the normal practice was for judges to be consulted by the Home Secretary when considering release from a life sentence, rather than giving a tariff at trial, but the judge, believing he might be dead by the time they were released, recommended 30 years for Conlon, 35 for Armstrong and until "great age" for Hill. By comparison, the Balcombe Street Gang received recommendations of 30 years. The Birmingham Six's trial judge chose not to give a recommendation.

There was never any evidence that any of "The Four" had been involved with the Provisional IRA. Furthermore, they did not "fit the bill" in terms of lifestyle. Paddy Armstrong and Carole Richardson, an Englishwoman, lived in a squat, and were involved with drugs and petty crime. Conlon likewise asserts at several points in his autobiography that the IRA would not have taken him due to his record for shoplifting and other petty crimes, and that he had, in fact, been expelled from Fianna Eireann, a Republican youth organisation with strong ties to the Provisional IRA. Paul Michael Hill was born and raised in Belfast in a mixed-religion marriage; as a boy he participated in the widespread rioting at the time.