---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 04 Feb 2002 17:31:46 -0800
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: Angry Brigade's bomb plot apology
Angry Brigade's bomb plot apology
Martin Bright, home affairs editor
Sunday February 3, 2002
The Observer
A member of Britain's only home-grown terrorist group, the Angry Brigade,
has publicly apologised to a former Tory Cabinet Minister for his
involvement in the bombing of his house over 30 years ago.
Jake Prescott, who was jailed for 10 years in 1971 for conspiracy to cause
explosions, last night called on other members of the cell that bombed the
London home of Robert Carr, Employment Secretary in Edward Heath's
government, to come forward.
Scotland Yard confirmed it would reopen the investigation into the bombing
if any new evidence came to light about the unit that carried it out. New
forensic advances mean that police scientists could still match surviving
DNA from the scene of the crime to samples taken from new suspects.
The Angry Brigade was accused of carrying out 25 attacks on government
buildings, embassies, corporations and the homes of Ministers between 1967
and 1971. No one was killed.
Five political activists in their early twenties were convicted of the
conspiracy, but no one was ever found guilty of planting the bombs.
Two bombs exploded at Carr's house on the night of 12 January 1971. Carr and
his wife and daughter were at home at the time, but none of them was in the
kitchen of the house in Hadley Green, Barnet, which was destroyed.
Prescott privately apologised to Carr and his family in a letter after he
left prison and Carr, who went on to become Home Secretary and a Tory peer,
wrote back to accept. Prescott, who was a heroin addict and burglar before
he became involved with the Angry Brigade, said the apology helped him
rebuild his life. He now lives in London with his wife and two children and
works as an adviser in a law centre.
He said: 'When Robert Carr accepted my apology it allowed me to move on.
Thirty years on, I now feel the time has come to make my admission public.'
Lord Carr, now 85, would not comment, but Lady Carr said: 'I still remember
a Christmas card Jake Prescott sent us and it was the best Christmas present
I ever had.'
A second 'member' of the Angry Brigade has also chosen the thirtieth
anniversary of the trial to give her first media interview. Speaking from a
secret location in Europe Hilary Creek, who was also sentenced to 10 years,
told The Observer: 'I was sick of sitting by and and waiting passively for
the next slap in the face from the mass media.'
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