Category: Wales
Date: 14.03.2005
Printable version
Twenty-five years ago, on 30 March 1980, Special Branch raided dozens of homes around Wales and arrested 50 people on suspicion of being involved in the arson campaign against holiday homes.
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Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Wales' Welsh language current affairs programme, Taro Naw, this week features an exclusive interview with the former head of Special Branch in South Wales, where he talks publicly for the first time about police activity during this campaign.
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On Taro Naw (Tuesday 15 March, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Wales on S4C, 8.25pm) former Acting Assistant Chief Constable of South Wales Police, Richie Thomas, talks candidly about the arson campaign and how intelligence about suspects was gathered.
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The raids on Palm Sunday were carried out sooner than intended because the nature of the campaign changed when Conservative Party offices in Cardiff and Shotton became a target for the arsonists, rather than political pressure, according to Richie Thomas.
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"That raised the level," he says. "It wasn't like placing a device in an empty house, a holiday home, knowing it was empty.
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"This was more serious because an explosion could've gone off anytime. Somebody could be passing; somebody could be in the building..."
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But despite understanding the fear for the safety of the public and the desire to act, Richie Thomas still believed the police should have held back.
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"I didn't agree with going in as quickly as we did," he admits.
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"I argued with the Head of CID not to go in, but of course he won the day. I would've waited in the hope that intelligence revealed something was about to happen soon... I would have gone in later."
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The programme also includes an interview with Enid Gruffudd, who was arrested together with her husband Robat, owner of Y Lolfa press in Talybont, Aberystwyth, and Roy Davies, former Detective Chief Inspector and Head of Llanelli CID at the time.
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On the programme, Roy Davies admits he thinks the intelligence they were given was inaccurate. He insists there was no evidence against the people he interviewed.
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"On the basis of the intelligence collected, warrants were drawn up to arrest people and search their homes for items such as magazines or maps that showed the locations of holiday homes, or sodium chlorate or those kind of things and so a few teams went round arresting people," Roy Davies explains.
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"... I have to say, from the absolute beginning, there was no evidence against any person I questioned - they were absolutely innocent and not guilty. And as the questioning went on I could see that these weren't involved with the campaign at all...
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"The intelligence wasn't correct, that's obvious. There was possibly suspicion or the magistrates wouldn't have issued warrants to arrest anybody unless there was some information, so the arrests by the police were lawful.
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"But it was obvious to everyone that the intelligence wasn't right."
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Davies also talks about the lack of co-operation from the general public.
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"There was absolutely no co-operation by the public when crimes such as the burning of holiday cottages were committed," he says, "because there was sympathy as people saw their Welsh communities dying... even though they didn't support the campaign."
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Enid Gruffudd speaks publicly for the first time about the horrific ordeal when she and her husband were arrested and taken away in the early hours, whilst their three young boys were in the house.
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"I've never spoken about it," she says. "I had decided not to and it's very difficult for me to do so now. I've shut it out of my mind, because it was a violent, unpleasant, horrible and ugly experience."
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For Michael Jones, the solicitor who represented 18 of those arrested, it's the most shocking incident he's seen in his long career.
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"Many of them said that the first they knew of the police in their homes was waking up to find two or three policemen standing round their bed telling them to get changed because they were under arrest for crimes related to burning holiday cottages," he says.
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"And then they were dragged away, many of them arrested like that with young children in the house."
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The programme also includes interviews with Dr John Davies, who discusses the Palm Sunday raids in the context of today's anti-terrorism laws.
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Notes to Editors
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Please credit programme: Taro Naw, Tuesday 15 March, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Wales on S4C, 8.25pm.
