Description

The case of Iain Hay Gordon involves a miscarriage of justice set against the backdrop of social, religious and class divides in Northern Ireland shortly after World War II. It lifts the lid on a closed world of privilege, hidden influences and opaque institutions whilst pointing out that the passage of time has not served to formally unmask the identity of the true perpetrator. The events involved a trial for murder of the daughter of a High Court judge in which an innocent man was convicted but a way had to be found to make sure he did not end up on the gallows. Hence the twists and turns of a tragic account in which a vulnerable young man was confined to a mental institution for a large part of his life. Beginning with his knee-jerk arrest, The Colour of Injustice revisits the facts, evidence and (sometimes exclusive) materials in the case, raising questions about the deficient investigation, peculiar trial and glossing over of key matters. In this first book on the case, well-known legal historian John Hostettler draws his own conclusions about what can only be described as a true story of criminal injustice - one of the most disturbing on record. Excerpt: The formal processes of criminal justice and the techniques of police interrogation apart, the investigative process is revealed to have been forensically incompetent ... The identity of Patricia Curran's killer remains unknown and, thanks to the performance of various members of the dramatis personæ in this tragedy it may ever remain so. Nonetheless, it may be possible with some accuracy to conjecture who the murderer might have been. John Hostettler is one of the UK's leading legal biographers, having written over 20 biographies and other books on legal history. With Richard Braby he was the author of the acclaimed and highly successful Sir William Garrow: His Life, Times and Fight for Justice as reflected in the BBC TV series Garrow's Law.