State Violence by Raymond Murray Page A

the stomach and then the one punching replied, ‘I have hurted my knuckles on the bastard’. Then they started to kick my stomach. They brought me over an electric fire as I was standing against the wall, fingers outstretched. One says, ‘Are you too warm?’ I never replied. He put it up to the full height. The sweat was running out of me. I was soaking. I said, ‘That’s it. You can take me out and shoot me. I don’t care’. One who said he hurt his knuckles kept on punching me. He was about fifty, a big man, well-made, grey hair. Before this, after he had beaten me and taken the mask off, he said, ‘You know I did a bit of boxing myself’. He punched me four times in the face. I says, ‘I’m down but I would still do you if I was on my own’. I felt a punch on the back of my neck. They threw me out of the room.
    A policeman outside linked me into a chair where you sit looking at the wee holes in the wall. When he saw the state I was in, he asked me to go to the toilet and get a drink of water. I came back and was set down on the chair for about two hours. Then a camp bed was brought in, must have been the early hours of Friday morning. I was told to make a camp bed and lie down on it. But a policeman stood over me all night whistling party tunes. He kicked me on the ribs and called me a bastard. I was awake all night. Didn’t sleep, the lights were on, and he was standing over me.
    Then I was made get up and sit on the chair and then brought out into another interrogation room. A man in his thirties with a beard was questioning me, more a talk. He said I was a Communist. He told me how many men he killed and he thought nothing of shooting me.
    I made a statement after the electric shocks but can’t remember whether I signed it, don’t think I signed anything.
    I was examined by five doctors altogether. I was examined by two doctors in Girdwood. One examined me and just went out. Another time after the beatings one examined me in Girdwood. He was worried about my kidney. He made me strip. I was examined by three doctors at Townhall (police station), by my own doctor, Dr Duffy, Duncairn Gardens, by a police doctor, and by the solicitor’s doctor.

John Moore
    In the early hours of Friday morning, about 4am, 21 January 1972, I was arrested. The soldiers came into the house. They said they wanted to search the place. I told them to go ahead. They searched the house and brought down five jackets belonging to me and said they were taking them away with them. They told me to get dressed. As soon as I went on the landing, they read a paper saying they were arresting me under the Special Powers Act. They kicked me downstairs into the car park. They said, for my own protection and the protection of those in the ‘pig’, they would have to blindfold me. They put a blindfold on and turned me round a few times. They brought me over and put me into the ‘pig’. They drove around for about twenty minutes. I thought I was at the Maidstone (prison ship in Belfast harbour for detainees). I thought I smelt sea water. The ‘pig’ stopped and I was brought out and put up against the wall. They left me there for about ten or fifteen minutes. They came back about fifteen minutes later and brought me into a building. They set me down on a chair and took my shoes and socks off.
    I was brought into a room, still blindfolded. I was facing a voice talking to me. He asked me what I did with the gun. I said I hadn’t got the gun. I got kicked on the shin. He repeated it. Same answer. I was kicked on the other shin. Same question again. I was tapped on the head with a baton six or seven times, each time getting harder. I said I never used it. One of them said, ‘Bring in the witness’. They took off the blindfold. They brought the witness in. He asked, ‘Is this the man you saw from the building site?’ ‘How many children have you?’ I