November 17 1981
The Irish Republican Army set Judith Ward to England with a message of hate. She wrote it in blood through a series of dreadful explosions. On Monday night (4-11-74), 25-year-old Miss Ward was jailed for thirty years and given a life sentence for her part in three bomb blasts, at the end of a three-week trial at Wakefield, Yorkshire. The worst of the bombings was on the M62 Motorway on February 4. A concealed bomb ripped apart an Army coach returning from weekend leave. Nine young soldiers, a soldier’s wife and two young children died. For her part in causing that outrage, Miss Ward was jailed for twenty years, and was also given a life sentence for the murder of the twelve victims. Although born in England, Miss Ward adopted Ireland as her country and developed an obsessive hatred of England and everything English. She became involved with the IRA while working as a stable girl in Ireland. Later she joined the British Army and gained much information of use to terrorists before deserting.
PICTURED: In her terrorist uniform … Judith Ward pictured wearing the uniform of the IRA at a political demonstration in Birmingham.
[True Crime Confidential Commentary: 18 years after her conviction and imprisonment, Miss Ward was released, it being found that she wasn’t an IRA bomber after all, just a nut bag who had admitted guilt when really innocent, a fact known to prosecutors all along.]
