The Winchester Castle trial was the prosecution of Dolours Price and Marian Price after the 8 March 1973 London bombings. The sisters had been arrested at Heathrow Airport; Dolours had served as officer commanding for the operation. The trial placed their roles in the campaign before a court, while contemporary reporting also framed the women through gendered expectations.

Background and Arrests

The case followed a planned series of London bombings. The targets included the London Central Criminal Court, a British Army recruiting centre, the British Forces Broadcasting Service and New Scotland Yard. The operation involved several cars, and police were tipped off on the morning of the attacks. The sisters were arrested at Heathrow Airport after the bombings.

Dolours Price’s position as officer commanding distinguished her role within the operation; Marian Price was also among those arrested and tried. Their subsequent custody and hunger strikes formed part of the longer aftermath of the case, but the available account does not specify the trial’s verdict or sentence.

Proceedings and Public Framing

The trial took place at Winchester Castle Hall, with Michael Mansfield acting as the Prices’ defence lawyer. The proceedings were not only a legal reckoning with the London attacks: the book’s account also identifies gendered media reporting as a feature of the sisters’ trial. Their public representation therefore became part of the event’s significance, alongside the questions of responsibility and punishment raised by the bombings.

Before the trial, the bombers attributed casualties to the police response, and the prisoners refused to wear prison uniforms. These actions carried the conflict over political status into the period surrounding the court case. The available evidence records the trial and its framing, but does not establish the court’s precise findings.