Evidence has emerged that the British army used waterboarding to interrogate Northern Ireland prisoners during troubled times back in the 1970s.

The torture technique was allegedly used in at least one interrogation of a prisoner who was accused of killing a British soldier in 1973, a Tuesday report published in the Guardian said.

The prisoner named Liam Holden was later convicted of murder, largely based on an unsigned confession.

At the time the jury ignored his claim that the confession was forced under severe duress by British soldiers who had held him down, placed a towel over his face and poured water over his nose and mouth.

After 17 years in jail, the Criminal Cases Review Commission is now reviewing Holden’s case because of doubts about the “admissibility and reliability” of his confession.

Waterboarding, which simulates drowning, is considered torture by agencies worldwide.

CIA agents are known to have used it in interrogating the so-called ‘war on terror’ suspects.