The Guildford Four were four people from Northern Ireland who were wrongly convicted in the United Kingdom in 1975 for the Provisional IRA's Guildford pub bombing, despite Joe McAndrew, one of the actual terrorists, subsequently admitting to the bombing.
The four were Paul Hill, Gerry Conlon, Patrick (Paddy) Armstrong and Carole Richardson. Hill stayed in prison until 1994, when another conviction of his was overturned.
Like many charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, their convictions were quashed in 1989 as unsound after evidence was found that detectives involved in the case had deliberately withheld evidence from the defence that corroborated Paul Hill and Gerry Conlon's alibis.
Several family members of Gerry Conlon, including his father Giuseppe, his aunt and his 14- and 16-year-old cousins, were also gaoled in the same case (mainly for explosives offences). Giuseppe Conlon died in prison.
Gerry Conlon's autobiography Proved Innocent was adapted into the Oscar- and Bafta-award winning 1993 film In the Name of the Father, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Emma Thompson and Pete Postlethwaite.
See also: Birmingham Six.
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