HOPES of fresh prosecutions over the Brighton bombing have been raised with six IRA terror suspects reportedly facing a major new police investigation.

The alleged terrorists are suspected of carrying out some of the worst attacks in both England and Northern Ireland, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

It is thought they had all received so-called “comfort letters” as part of the Good Friday Agreement, which they understood would protect them from prosecution.

However, detectives in Northern Ireland have now said they do not believe the letters protect the suspects.

It is not clear which attacks the six are believed to be behind. However, investigators may look at the attack on the Conservative Party conference in Brighton in 1984.

Speaking to The Argus last night, Norman Tebbit, who was in The Grand hotel at the time of the attack with his wife, called on convicted bomber Patrick Magee to name those involved.

He said: “I don’t know if this will get anywhere. A lot of it depends on Mr Magee. He says that he is sorry about it all and expects people to forgive him but of course a condition of forgiveness is penitence, and his penitence would obviously be to say who it is that had put him up to it.”

Referring to the “comfort letters,” he added: “I think it would have been better if they were never to have gone out, but what the courts will say about all this, I don’t know.”

His wife Margaret was left permanently disabled after the 1984 attack which killed five and injured 34.

The existence of the comfort letters only emerged last year following the collapse of the trial of John Downey who was charged with murdering four soldiers in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing.

It is understood comfort letters were also given to suspects in the 1983 Harrods car bomb attack and the 1987 Enniskellen bombing, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

The controversial letters, sent out as part of the peace deal, informed approximately 200 fugitives they would not face arrest if they returned to the UK.

IRA bomber Patrick Magee served 19 years in prison for the Brighton bombing before being released as part of the Good Friday Agreement.

However, in the years since he has refused to name those behind the attack.

Visiting Brighton last year he said the peace process would not “reach a position where the truth would be told [...] if the finger is constantly pointed”.

On Friday, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) wrote to MPs on the Northern Ireland affairs select committee, to disclose details of a major new phase in their inquiries.

In the letter, seen by the Sunday Telegraph, Will Kerr, Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Assistant Chief Constable, said the force believes there to be no barrier to prosecuting suspects sent “comfort letters”.