Interrogation was not a gentle business. Questioning, by rotating teams of detectives, could go on for six to eight hours a day with few breaks, and even long into the night. The courts threw out some cases, but for the most part allowed detectives a great degree of latitude, one senior judge ruling that a blow to the face which left the nose ‘swollen and caused it to bleed’ did not necessarily mean a subsequent confession was inadmissible as evidence. The assumption was widespread that fists were being freely used in Castlereagh and elsewhere.
