Guildford pub bombing: A 'courting couple' planted IRA bomb as strong as 18 sticks of dynamite that killed five in 1974

Relatives of a victim of the Guildford pub bombings nearly 48 years ago says they need answers after a coroner ruled the explosives were laid by a ‘courting couple’.

Soldiers Caroline Slater, 18, William Forsyth, 18, John Hunter, 17, and Ann Hamilton, 19, and civilian Paul Craig, 21, died and 65 were injured in the blast – carried out by the terrorists during the height of the Northern Ireland Troubles – at the Horse and Groom pub in the Surrey town on October 5, 1974.

The bomb which went off at around 8.50pm was equivalent to 18 sticks of dynamite, and is likely to have been placed in the pub by a man and woman, Surrey Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday.