Northern Irish children tortured to admit to murders

24 cases already overturned, more expected to be investigated

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Charlie McMenamin complained of violent treatment during interrogation by RUC officers

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Both served nine years behind bars.

In their confessions, they said they forced open Johnston's front door a little after 11pm, went upstairs and shot him from his bedroom door as he lay on his bed.

 But they confessed before the police pathologist had finished  his report, which said Johnston was  beaten for 30 minutes before he was killed and that the time of death was 3am.

On the actual night of the murder, according to Hanna's father, he kept his son at home because he had been threatened because he had befriended some catholics.

These youths later beat him up and he was three weeks in hospital recovering.

The appeal court also was told that when Hindes "confessed" that his accomplice was a Robert Hanna, he had been referring to a different boy of the same name.

Three decades later, both convictions were overturned. A few hours before their appeal began, Hanna  hanged himself at his home in Northamptonshire.

Eamonn McDermott, also interviewed by The Guardian, was arrested in 1977 for questioning over another police murder. He was 19 at the time and about to enter university. After two days of beating he signed the confession, and when he claimed in court that he had only signed it to stop the beatings, the judge ignored him. He was jailed for life and served 15 years, before beginning life again as a journalist upon his release. He is now editor of the Derry Journal.

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