A history of torture in Britain

Webb, Simon (Historian)2018

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Summary

There is an ancient and quite baseless myth that the use of torture has never been legal in Britain. This old wives' tale arose because torture has been neither endorsed nor forbidden by either statute or common law. In other words; the law has never had anything to say on the subject. In fact, torture, inflicted both as punishment and as an aid to interrogation, has been a constant and recurring feature of British life; from the beginning of the country's recorded history, until well into the twentieth century. As late as 1976, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the British Army was guilty of the systematic torture of suspected terrorists. In 'A History of Torture in Britain' Simon Webb traces the terrible story of the deliberate use of pain on prisoners in Britain and its overseas possessions.