It could happen again’ – man wrongly convicted of Sallins train robbery continues call for inquiry nearly 50 years on Osgur Breatnach, left, in 1992, who along with Nicky Kelly, centre, and Brian McNally were wrongly convicted and imprisoned for the Sallins train robbery.

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Police tortured me, says man falsely jailed for train robbery

This article is more than 3 years old

Osgur Breatnach, one of three people jailed in Ireland for Sallins Train Robbery.

Innocent man says he was tortured into a confession by ‘The Heavy Gang’ and insists State covered it upA man wrongly convicted of a role in the 1976 Sallins train robbery has said the Government is not holding a ­public independent inquiry into the investigation because it would lift the lid on what he says was a state policy of using torture to secure false confessions from innocent people.

Osgur Breatnach said a group within the gardaí at the time, widely known as The Heavy Gang, beat and tortured a confession from him to silence a political group he was involved in, and a “policy of torture” had been covered up