Francis Rice: Castlewellan Three murder convictions to be reconsidered

The case of three men, jailed for a 1970s murder they have always denied, is to be re-opened.

George Kirkpatrick and brothers Eric and Cyril Cullen, known as the Castlewellan Three, were jailed for the murder of Francis Rice.

The 17 year old was killed in the small County Down town in May 1975.

The Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC) has decided there are now grounds to question the safety of the convictions.

The CCRC was asked to reassess the case in 2018, after a BBC Spotlight investigation cast serious doubt on the men’s guilt.

Catholic teenager Francis Rice was abducted and stabbed to death. His body was dumped in a laneway.

The killing was claimed by the Protestant Action Force – a cover name for the UVF.

In 1981, Kirkpatrick and the Cullens received life sentences for the killing although none was ever involved with paramilitaries and refused to serve their time on the loyalist prison wings.

The judge in the case offered them reduced sentences if they pleaded guilty but they refused.

The only evidence against the trio was their signed confessions which they claimed they were tricked and coerced into making during police interviews.

The judge said he believed in the honesty of the RUC officers involved in the case.

However, Spotlight revealed that several officers who interviewed the three men were later discovered to have re-written and lied under oath about police interview notes used in another case, to convict four other men of murder.

Lawyers for the Castlewellan Three have said this casts serious concerns as to the officers’ credibility as witnesses of truth.

They argued that had the judge known of this dishonesty, it could have changed his mind about admitting the alleged confessions into evidence in 1981.

George Kirkpartick and Cyril Cullen have both died in recent years.

Eric Cullen, now is his mid-60s, is the only surviving member of the Castlewellan Three

His solicitor, Conor Moylan of Madden and Finucane, said: “We welcome the decision by the CCRC to re-open the case and look forward to presenting the evidence before the Court of Appeal that shows the convictions are unsafe.

“The behaviour of the RUC officers who extracted the false confessions is indefensible.

“Sadly, George Kirkpatrick and Cyril Cullen passed away before they were able to see their case brought back to the Court of Appeal to clear their names and reputations.”

Their relatives will attend the court to support the appeals.

The officers involved in the case have always denied any wrong doing.