State Violence by Raymond Murray

in the groin with a rifle butt when arrested. We were still handcuffed. I was made sit in the room. An SLR was put to my head and I was told I was being taken out and shot. I was made to sit in this hall till an army sergeant came in. He asked which one was Fitzsimmons. I replied. He said, ‘You are just the little twerp I have been looking for the past two months.’ Another fella returned and I was taken away. I was taken down a corridor, three soldiers on each side. They had wooden batons. They beat me as I went down the corridor. We went to the commanding officer. He gave me twenty seconds to give names of my brother and other fellas and where they were staying. When I told them I didn’t know they beat me. They took me back up the corridor again. I was beat on the way up. I was put in the toilet. I was beaten with batons and rifles on the back of the neck and the privates. I was brought back down the corridor again, still being beaten by the batons. I was brought before the commanding officer again. I was asked had I thought where they were. I said I didn’t know. I was beaten again. I was taken out and made stand against the wall. The sergeant replied, ‘You are being taken out to be shot.’ Another officer came along. He showed me a photograph. When I said I recognised the photograph they said I was reprieved. I was then taken out to the back and handed over to the ‘duck squad’, the fellas with black soot on their faces. I was beaten up outside and kicked. They put me in the saracen and kicked me in the saracen as it was taking off. There were four soldiers in the saracen with me. We made a lot of circles. I thought I was still in Girdwood.
    I was brought round to the interrogation centre. Then stripped of all personal belongings. I was made sit in the cubicles. I was taken out and questioned by the Special Branch for periods, different lengths of time, sometimes half-an-hour, sometimes one and a half hours. The second last one I was brought into a room. The lights were off in the room. I was made sit in a chair. As I made to sit in the chair it was pulled below me. I fell to the floor and the lights went on again. There were three men there with stockings on their faces. The head man says, ‘if you want to have it easy tell us everything you have done’. When I said I had nothing to tell, I was made stand against the wall, fingers distributed and legs outstretched. I was beaten and kicked in the stomach and privates for about half-an-hour. I was made lie on the floor. My pants and underpants were removed. One put his foot on my throat and the other held my legs. The other one lit matches. He blew them out and then put them to my privates. Then they made a few rude remarks about my wife and made me get up again. They made me stand against the wall again. That was a rest for about fifteen minutes.
    Then they took me into another room. They told me not to look around but I saw a man with a green apron and green overalls with a mask like a doctor. He was a big heavy-set man. They made me sit on a chair facing the wall. They blinded my eyes with a cloth. They rubbed my arm with some stuff and I felt a jab in my arm. I felt my head dizzy. Then I thought they were taking my blood pressure for a band was wrapped round my arm. Then I felt an electric shock going through my arm. It got higher and higher and I felt it going through my legs and the rest of my body. I was holding on to the arm of the chair. Another person lifted my arm off the chair. The person who lifted my arm off the chair told me to sit ordinary without holding anything. The shocks went all through my body, down through my feet and all. Then I heard a voice, ‘I think he has had enough’. The other replied, ‘Electrocute the bastard’. The things round my eyes and arm were taken off.
    I was told not to look around. I was taken into the same room I got the beatings. Made stand against the wall. Punched in