The British criminal justice system is not dedicated to the truth. It is concerned only with reasonable doubt.

During the British Army campaign in Northern Ireland (1969–2007), security forces often dispensed with judge and jury, selected candidates for assassination, extracted false evidence from suspects, forced confessions from innocents and tortured citizens detained without trial. Recent inquests have disclosed a wealth of explosive, newly declassified information, which allows for a compulsive exposé of abuses of power.

Drawing on previously unseen material, Michael O’Connell, an experienced criminal lawyer, lays bare the chilling details of key cases in which the law was disregarded. He reveals how the truth was sacrificed to collusion, prejudice and corruption in notorious cases. Among them are the killing of Máire Drumm (Vice President of Sinn Féin), before which an army unit surrounding the hospital where she was a patient was withdrawn, and of Miriam Daly (a lecturer in Queen’s University) in her home, where outgoing calls had been cut.