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.

[14] The bombed coach had been specially commissioned to carry British Army and Royal Air Force personnel—on weekend leave with their families—to and from bases at Catterick and Darlington during a period of railway strike action sourcing from a labour dispute.

[15][16] The vehicle itself had departed from Manchester in the late evening of Sunday 3 February and was travelling at approximately 60 mph (100 km/h) along the M62 motorway en route to Catterick Garrison.

[26] One of the first motorists to offer assistance after Handley had navigated the coach to a halt was John Clark, who later recollected seeing a young man lying upon the motorway with one leg partially severed and the body of a child, stating: "It was just absolutely ... unbelievable.

[38] Within twenty-four hours of the explosion, demands had been heard in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that Irish citizens entering Britain be required to carry passports and other forms of identification at all times.

Ó Conaill replied that the coach was selected as a legitimate target because IRA intelligence had indicated that the vehicle was commissioned to carry military personnel only.

[40] Although a police spokesman initially emphasised that investigators were keeping an "open mind" as to the cause of the explosion, in the days immediately following the bombing, suspicion quickly fell upon the IRA,[41] which had extended its campaign to England the previous year[42] and had recently begun efforts to force the British Government to transfer four IRA members serving life imprisonment in English jails and currently engaging in hunger strikes to prisons in Northern Ireland.

[44] Investigators initially remained open-minded as to whether the perpetrator was a member of a UK-based cell, or had travelled across from Northern Ireland to commit the atrocity, as had been the case with regards to a previous IRA bombing at the Old Bailey.

[37] At 6:30 a.m. on 14 February,[45] police encountered a 25-year-old mentally ill English woman named Judith Teresa Ward[46][n 6] standing in a shop doorway in Liverpool city centre, seeking shelter from the cold and rain.

The same evening, with Ward's consent, forensic scientist Frank Skuse obtained swab samples from her hands and fingernails to conduct Griess tests.

[50] A subsequent forensic examination by Skuse of a caravan in which Ward had recently lived prior to her arrest also revealed what he concluded to be traces of nitroglycerin upon a duffel bag and other personal possessions.

This investigation would prove to be rushed, careless and ultimately forged, but culminated in Ward claiming culpability for the M62 coach bombing and two separate, non-fatal explosions.

[55] The following day, in the presence of George Oldfield, Ward wrote a confession claiming culpability for transporting the explosives used in the September 1973 Euston bombing.

In the years between leaving school and her arrest, she had frequently divided her time between Ravensdale, Wiltshire, and her home town of Stockport, which she had first returned to from Dundalk in October 1970.

Her basic training saw Ward spend approximately four months at Catterick Garrison before she was transferred to Aldershot, Hampshire on 5 August 1971 to serve as a communications centre operator.

Four days later, she and Mayall travelled by bus to Cardiff, with Ward leaving the duffel bags she had purchased in Chipping Norton inside a freight container.

[61] To support the prosecution's contentions, several witnesses testified as to verbal statements Ward had made indicating her sympathies with the concept of Irish republicanism.

[81][n 13] Ward's defence attorney, Andrew Rankin, QC, refuted the prosecution contentions, insisting the forensic evidence presented could be easily explained as sourcing from cross-contamination and describing his client as a "female Walter Mitty" character, for whom fantasy had become reality, who was perhaps seeking notoriety in Irish folklore.

Referencing the "rambling, incoherent and improbable" statements Ward had made to police,[83] Rankin outlined the numerous inconsistencies and alterations she had made which indicated she had not been telling the truth and stressed to the jury the IRA would be extremely unlikely to accept or to trust an individual of sheer incompetence and who had, prior to 1974, come to the attention of the police and the Army in both Northern Ireland and England on several occasions.

Acknowledging that others should also be prosecuted for the three bombings, Cobb concluded his speech by stating to the jury: "You are sitting in judgment on the gravest charge, short of treason, ever known.

[87] Rankin again disputed the sourcing of the traces of explosive material, insisting Ward had inadvertently become cross-contaminated and reiterating his client's ineptitude, vivid fantasy life, and the numerous inconsistencies within her repeatedly altered statements.

In this term, we include four categories of individuals, namely (1) the three police forces: West Yorkshire, Thames Valley and Metropolitan which carried out the relevant investigations ... we may say the failure to disclose was limited to the West Yorkshire Police; (2) the staff of the Director of Public Prosecutions and counsel who advised them; (3) the psychiatrists who prepared medical reports on Miss Ward at the request of the prosecution; and (4) the forensic scientists who gave evidence at the trial.

Her barrister, Michael Mansfield, QC,[95] contended there had been a "significant and substantial non-disclosure" of evidence and information which had strongly indicated her innocence, and that of the 63 interviews West Yorkshire Police had conducted with Ward before and after her confession, only 34 had been disclosed at trial.

[85] Furthermore, the court also heard that the handling of lacquers, boot polish and other commodities in common public use by any individual would produce the same positive results presented at Ward's trial as proof of their having handled—or come into contact with—explosive substances, as contended by Skuse and others.

This information was known to forensic experts in 1974,[96] but had also never been disclosed at her original trial, or in the intervening years despite her protestations of innocence and subsequent developments with regards to other uncovered miscarriages of justice.

[100][101] Delivering final judgment at the conclusion of these appeal hearings, Lord Justice Iain Glidewell stated: "Our law does not permit a conviction to be secured by ambush.

[106] A memorial to those killed in the M62 coach bombing was later erected at Hartshead Moor service station, where many of the casualties had received impromptu first aid following the explosion.

[111] Ward initially struggled with life as a free woman following the overturning of her conviction, in part because of the lack of a support structure she received from society after she had been formally exonerated.

As had earlier been the case with Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four, Ward initially lived with solicitor Gareth Peirce until a secure home could be found for her.

[112] In October 1985, Frank Skuse was ordered by the Home Office to retire on the grounds of "limited efficiency" just days after the broadcasting of a World in Action documentary which strongly questioned his competency.