McCANN AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT JOINT DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGES RYSSDAL, BERNHARDT, THÓR VILHJÁLMSSON, GÖLCÜKLÜ, PALM, PEKKANEN, SIR JOHN FREELAND, BAKA AND JAMBREK 61 strolled towards the border area since this would have increased the risk of detection and capture". Surely, however, the question is rather whether the authorities could safely have operated on the assumption that the suspects would be unlikely to be prepared to explode the bomb when, even if for the time being moving in the direction of the border, they became aware that they had been detected and were faced with the prospect of arrest. In our view, the answer is clear: certainly, previous experience of IRA activities would have afforded no reliable basis for concluding that the killing of many civilians would itself be a sufficient deterrent or that the suspects, when confronted, would have preferred no explosion at all to an explosion causing civilian casualties. It is relevant that, according to Soldier F’s evidence at the inquest, part of the intelligence background was that he had been told that the IRA were under pressure to produce a "spectacular". He also gave evidence of his belief that, when cornered, the suspects would have no qualms about pressing the button to achieve some degree of propaganda success: they would try to derive such a success out of having got a bomb into Gibraltar and that would outweigh in their minds the propaganda loss arising from civilian casualties. 15. The second sub-paragraph of paragraph 208 goes on to suggest that it "might also have been thought improbable that at that point" - that is, apparently, as McCann and Farrell "strolled towards the border" - "[the suspects] would have set up the transmitter in anticipation to enable them to detonate the supposed bomb immediately if confronted". Here, the question ought, we consider, to be whether the authorities could prudently have proceeded otherwise than on the footing that there was at the very least a possibility that, if not before the suspects became aware of detection then immediately afterwards, the transmitter would be in a state of readiness to detonate the bomb. 16. It is next suggested, in the third sub-paragraph of paragraph 208, that "even if allowances are made for the technological skills of the IRA, the description of the detonation device as a `button job’ without the qualifications subsequently described by the experts at the inquest ..., of which the competent authorities must have been aware, over-simplifies the true nature of these devices". The exact purport of this criticism is perhaps open to some doubt. What is fully clear, however, is that, as the applicants’ own expert witness accepted at the inquest, a transmitter of the kind which was thought likely to be used in the present case could be set up so as to enable detonation to be caused by pressing a single button; and in the light of past experience it would have been most unwise to discount the possibility of technological advance in this field by the IRA. 17. Paragraph 209 of the judgment expresses disquiet that the assessment made by Soldier G that there was a "suspect car bomb" was conveyed to the