Castlewellan Three Court of Appeal hearing is dismissed

Castlewellan Three Court of Appeal hearing is dismissed

22 January 2025

A LEGAL bid to overturn three men’s convictions for murdering a Catholic teenager in Castlewellan 50 years ago is to be dismissed.

Lawyers for George Kirkpatrick and brothers Eric and Cyril Cullen claimed they were wrongly found guilty of killing Francis Rice based on disputed confessions obtained from interviewing police officers subsequently exposed as having lied under oath.

But senior judges at the Court of Appeal ruled on Friday that none of the arguments advanced rendered their convictions unsafe. 

The defendants, known as the Castlewellan Three, received life sentences for the sectarian murder of Mr Rice in the town in May 1975.

The 17 year-old victim was abducted and stabbed to death before his body was dumped in a laneway.

His killing was claimed by the Protestant Action Force – a cover name for the Ulster Volunteer Force.

In 1981, Kirkpatrick and the Cullens were jailed for kidnapping, falsely imprisoning and murdering the teenager, despite protesting their innocence.

Their trial at Belfast City Commission centred around admissions allegedly made to investigating RUC officers.

Although George Kirkpatrick and Cyril Cullen have both since died, attempts were made to clear the names of all three men.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission referred their convictions back to the Court of Appeal amid concerns about the credibility of three policemen who questioned them in custody.

Those officers were later subject to heavy criticism for rewriting interview notes and lying under oath in a separate Troubles-era murder case.

It was contended that the Castlewellan Three had been subjected to similarly indefensible police behaviour in pressuring them into making false admissions.

Counsel for Eric Cullen insisted that disputed admission statements would have been ruled inadmissible if the trial judge had known about the same detectives’ subsequent wrongdoing.

He suggested the confessions were invented as part of coercion during the police interviews.

Delivering the judgment, Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan said the appeal centred on alleged concoction of statements by officers later discredited by another court.

Any similarities with the separate case did not mean the three men’s convictions were automatically unsafe, she stressed. 

Identifying no evidence of vulnerability on the part of any of the appellants, Dame Siobhan pointed out that Kirkpatrick gave an “inconsistent and wholly unconvincing account” to the CCRC and made no case of torture or inhuman treatment.

She also found that medical evidence from doctors who treated each of the defendants during interviews had been properly relied on at the trial.   

Dealing with claims their confessions should have been excluded, the Lady Chief Justice said: “We cannot be satisfied that the judge, in exercising his discretion to admit the statements, made an error.”

Defence arguments about a police conspiracy were rejected because discredited officers were not involved in all three men’s cases.

According to Dame Siobhan, it was also highly significant that their appeal only focussed on the murder charge without raising issues over their false imprisonment and kidnapping convictions.

Dismissing the appeals on all grounds, she confirmed: “The court is not satisfied that the safety of these convictions is undermined by any of the arguments raised by this CCRC reference.”

Outside court, the teenage victim’s mother described the decision to uphold the murder convictions as a “massive relief” for her family.

Mrs Teresa Rice said: “Today confirms what we have known all along for the past 50 years.

“We knew they were guilty. We knew what they had done, but they kept bringing it up all the time.

“It’s good that we can now get some long overdue closure.

“I’m glad that justice has been done.”

Mrs Rice’s solicitor, Kevin Winters, highlighted the large contingent of supporters who travelled from Castlewellan for the judgment.

“Their massive round of applause immediately after the ruling in court today reflected a collective relief all round,” Mr Winters said.

“This family has battled for years to make sure and do all they could to preserve this conviction. They felt they owed to Francis and his memory to keep it secure.”

Eric Cullen, the only surviving member of the Castlewellan Three, was also in court when the ruling was made.

His solicitor, Michael Madden, said Mr Cullen was “disappointed” at the outcome and the full judgement would be considered to “see what other options are available”.