Gordon’s medical records reveal that he received no treatment for insanity and was quietly released seven years later, in 1960. He returned to Scotland and lived with his mother under an assumed name. He found it difficult to adjust to normal life. Eventually, he got a job in the stores of a publisher, on condition that he use the name John and was warned that he must never mention his case. In many murder cases, a synopsis is generally easy to put together; that is not the case with this one. First, there is a brutal murder, an investigation which results in over 40,000 statements, many of which are conflicting, and then a trial which, it could be said, was partisan. Then, 48 years later, an appeal to have the verdict overturned by the convicted man, which even led to a change in British law so that it could be heard, and the very lengthy summary of that hearing into the original case. The debris of this case is scattered throughout his family and his poor mother died bankrupt trying to clear his name." Mr Hay Gordon, who was stationed at a base near the Curran home, had only met the family a handful of times and swears he was nowhere near the house on the night of the murder. But two months later, in January, he was arrested and charged. Major Sir Lancelot Ernest Curran (8 March 1899 – 20 October 1984 [1]) was a Northern Ireland High Court judge and parliamentarian.

Scapegoat, a BBC Northern Ireland drama about the conviction of Hay Gordon, was broadcast in 2009. [8] Famous Trials [ edit ] A fictionalized account of the trial and execution of McGladdery, Orchid Blue, was written by Eoin McNamee and published in 2010 (McNamee had previously written a Booker Prize-nominated novel, Blue Tango, about the murder of Patricia Curran). Dubliner Kieran Fagan has spent years meticulously researching the case and he finally presents his findings this week with the publication of ‘Who Killed Patricia Curran’. Hay was found guilty but cleared in 2000 after the case against him was exposed as a tissue of lies. They lifted Patricia into their car, with the constable’s consent, thinking she may still be alive and took her to the Whiteabbey surgery of Doctor Wilson, the family doctor.She had 37 stab wounds and must have struggled with her murderer, who would have been drenched in blood, yet her belongings were piled neatly several yards from the body. Further conflicting evidence on Mr Hay Gordon's whereabouts later multiplied the contradictions. Commentators think that Patricia returned to the family home around 5.30 pm on the evening before her body was discovered. She, having a distinct fear of the rather overgrown and sinister driveway may have been accompanied towards the home. It has been suggested that Patricia’s mother, disapproving of her daughter’s lifestyle, entirely conventional if judged by todays’s standards, murdered her. Patricia had had a gap year, unusually at the time, before starting her Arts degree at QUB. Judge Curran was playing poker at the Ulster Reform Club, from where, around 7 pm, he was urgently summoned; Desmond arrived somewhat later. A 20 year old RAF technician, Iain Hay Gordon, who had met Patricia at the Presbyterian church they both attended, was convicted of her murder. His sentence was overturned in 2000 after the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal found it to be unsafe. [7] I really tried to keep going with it but had to give up. It just reminded me of pulpy historical novels that I used to read as a teenager - Jean Plaidy and the like.

Commentators agree that Iain Hay Gordon was a scapegoat in an establishment cover-up; and that his conviction as ‘guilty but insane’ was a legal manoeuvre to prevent him having the ultimate (capital) punishment being imposed. If Gordon had been represented properly the "confession" would not have been admitted as evidence. He withdrew it immediately, explaining to his reluctant defence team that he had been harangued by four policemen for days, ten hours at a stretch. The Court of three judges ruled that the ‘confession’ was inadmissible; it was the only evidence pointing to Iain Hay Gordon’s guilt. A JESUIT priest from a devoutly Protestant family at the heart of the Northern Ireland establishment has died in South Africa - taking to his grave the last chance of shedding further light on one the north's most notorious murders.Patricia Curran had tea with a fellow student John Steel on 12 November 1952 before he escorted her to Smithfield Bus Station, where she boarded the 5pm bus which would take her home. She was last seen at 5.20pm as she alighted from the bus close to the driveway that led to her house. his handwriting was tiny and detailed, and resembled the written manifestation of an arcane practice"....

I was never sorrier for any criminal than for that unhappy, maladjusted youngster. But his mask had to be broken.” Whatever, in the course of my practice, I may see or hear (even when not invited), whatever I may happen to obtain knowledge of, if it be not proper to repeat it, I will keep sacred and secret within my own breast. Freed in 1960, he lived a quiet, exemplary life in Glasgow, where few knew his history, but remained determined to clear his name. The legal battle began in earnest in 1993 and seven years later, he succeeded. During the State of Emergency we led mass funerals and gave evidence against the riot police and the army in the Supreme Court," he said. But because of the conviction he struggled to find work. A book publisher eventually employed him. It was a fresh start, but he was still living under the shadow of murder.Ian Hay Gordon was twenty, a year older than Patricia Curran, and miles apart from her in intelligence and social class. He was shy and awkward socially and physically. Some of his smarter servicemen companions persuaded him that he had to use L-plates on his bicycle as he rode about the camp. He was alleged to be homosexual, though showing very little evidence of sexual drive. And the judge himself? Nine years after his daughter’s death Lance Curran went on to become Ireland’s last hanging judge. In 1961 he convicted Robert McGladdery from Newry and sentenced him to death for the murder of 19-year-old Pearl Gamble. The evidence was circumstantial and McGladdery maintained his innocence but Curran weighed in with a well-timed and cynical steer to the jury and McGladdery was hanged in Crumlin Road gaol that December. That story became Orchid Blue, the second book of an unintended trilogy. Kenneth Holden, the clerk of council, echoed the ‘strong feeling’ in the district. He added that Holywell shared them too. I was really interested in the true story that this book is based on and was sure it wouldn't disappoint.