Naming the prime suspect for the Harrods Christmas bombing

The London Daily News, June 1987

This is John Connolly, whom we can name today as the most wanted terrorist in Britain. He is Scotland Yard’s prime suspect for the bombing of Christmas shoppers at Harrods in December 1983.

The Yard’s Anti Terrorist Branch believes he placed the car bomb that exploded outside the Knightsbridge store, killing six people and maiming and injuring 92 others. No one has been charged with the attack.

Detectives think he committed the murders with three other IRA volunteers. They are Paul Kavanagh, who has since been jailed for other mainland bombings; one of Connolly’s closest friends, whose first name is Gerard; and an unnamed woman whose identity has been narrowed down to one of two suspects.

Connolly, 29, is now believed to be living with his new wife in the Irish Republic. He and the two other men in the team came within an ace of being caught a few weeks after the bombing when Special Branch officers trapped them on the mainland.

But they lost them, and their escape started a furious row inside the Yard. Special Branch had the bombers in their grasp for more than two days – but did not inform the Anti Terrorist Branch, which was supposed to be running the inquiry, until after they had got away.

Although detectives believe they have enough evidence to jail Connolly, they fear that attempts to extradite him for trial would run up against Dublin’s reluctance to be seen to be helping British police. Previous attempts to extradite IRA suspects, such as Evelyn Glenholmes, have ended in fiasco.

John Gerard Joseph Connolly, aged 29, is well known to the security forces in Belfast, where he was jailed for five years in 1977 for possessing explosives and IRA membership. He has worked actively for the IRA’s political wing, Provisional Sinn Fein, and was arrested in 1981 on the evidence of an informer who later retracted his testimony.

Connolly was last arrested in Belfast in 1982 with another mainland bomber, Tommy Quigley (now in prison in Britain). They were freed after questioning. Connolly, who chain-smokes cheroots, has not been seen in Belfast since late 1983.

At that time, the IRA’s Army Council in Dublin was laying detailed plans for a new wave of London bombings. Connolly’s unit was joined by Paul Kavanagh, now 31, who had also served five years for terrorist offences. and who was responsible for procuring the equipment.

During the autumn of 1983 they smuggled arms and explosives to the mainland, taking them into the Irish Sea by trawler then transferring to another vessel to land in England. They bought two cars and found safe houses in the Midlands. In December, with the help of their woman companion and Gerard, a specialist driver, they struck.

They blew up a guards room at Woolwich barracks; placed a timebomb off Kensington High Street, which was found before it could explode; and then, on December 17, they hit Harrods. The savagery of the attack provoked an outcry, and the IRA Army Council issued a statement denying it had been authorised – a signal to the unit to cease operations.

Five weeks later the Spe-cial Branch had its chance to catch them when the Army Council sent Natalino Vella, an Irishman of Italian extraction, to recall the unit. He was followed as he met Connolly, Kavanagh and Gerard. They were photo-graphed together and tracked by unmarked cars as they drove him to the Midlands to show him two arms caches buried in woodland. The location was marked by bark stripped from trees.

The IRA men then realised they were being followed. With their police tail behind them, they careered across the Midlands at speeds of over 100 mph until a milk tanker pulled out between them and their pursuers, and the terrorists got away. The Special Branch only then informed the Anti Terrorist Branch about the operation. There were blistering rows. It was agreed that in future one officer should oversee the work of both sections.

Desperate attempts were made to find the IRA unit. Men and women officers were paired off into 34 couples and spent four days drinking and dancing their way through North London’s Irish clubs and pubs. Plainclothes detectives watched every train arriving in London from the Midlands as armed arrest squads waited in the wings. They checked motorway break-down firms, traffic-control videos, and parking tickets. But they had lost them.

Two months later, in March 1984, Kavanagh was spotted in Belfast, arrested and brought back to London. The Anti Terrorist Branch, which had evidence that he had bought the blue Austin used for the explosion, tried to charge him with the conspiracy to bomb Harrods. But the Director of Public Prosecutions refused. Instead, Kavanagh was charged with earlier mainland bombings and jailed for life.

Natalino Vella was arrested when he disobeyed IRA orders and flew back to London. Under questioning, he admitted that Connolly’s unit was responsible for the Harrods’ bomb. He was later jailed for 15 years. But Connolly himself has never again come within Scotland Yard’s reach.