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© Copyright, Criminal Cases Review Commission 2025.

O’Rawe, Henry

Published:

Henry O’Rawe was convicted on 25 March 1975 at Belfast City Commission of escaping lawful custody and was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment.  

A CCRC case review manager compared the supposed signature of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on the order used to detain Mr O’Rawe, in the first place in 1973, with 175 other orders also signed by the Secretary of State, leading to doubts the order had been signed by him. 

Mr O’Rawe had been interned by way of an Interim Custody Order (ICO) under the Detention of Terrorists (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 since 12 February 1973. On 29 June 1974, he was taken to Lagan Valley Hospital for medical treatment, where he attempted to escape and later sustained his conviction. 

Mr O’Rawe did not appeal his conviction before his death in August 2010. An application on his behalf was submitted by his family in September 2023.  

Although Mr O’Rawe’s ICO had been apparently signed by William Whitelaw, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the signature appeared irregular.  

During review, the CCRC compared the signature to 175 other ICOs signed by Mr Whitelaw provided by the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). This investigation led to real doubt that the ICO was signed or personally authorised by Mr Whitelaw as required. 

The CCRC has also reviewed the concerns of senior government officials in London and Northern Ireland at the time regarding the process by which ICOs were being considered, including concerns of unlawfulness.  

This involved obtaining and scrutinising numerous documents from PRONI and the Northern Ireland Office. There was a real possibility this evidence would persuade the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal that it should not presume the signature on Mr O’Rawe’s ICO was authentic.  

There was, therefore, a real possibility that the Court would conclude the ICO imposed on Mr O’Rawe was invalid and that as a result he was detained unlawfully and wrongfully convicted. 

The CCRC referred the conviction in December 2025.