MAXINE Hambleton was just 18 when she went to the Tavern in the Town pub to invite friends to a housewarming party.

She never returned.

The aspiring law student, from Solihull, was among the 21 victims of the blasts which tore through the pub and a second city centre watering hole, the Mulberry Bush, on November 21, 1974.

She and her friend Jane Davis, at 17 the youngest victim of the atrocity, were buried side-by-side at St Giles Church in Sheldon.

Maxine’s sister Julie was just 11 when she came home from school to be told that her big sister was dead.

More than 37 years later, she has launched an e-petition on a Government website calling for a new independent inquiry into the bombings.

Speaking in detail of the bombings for the first time, Julie said: “I am doing it for Maxine and all the other victims.

“Someone has to fight for them, someone has to speak on their behalf because they’re not here to do it themselves.

“Somebody has to take a stand. It doesn’t matter how much time has passed.

“Every single person who was killed has a good reason to have their perpetrators brought to justice.

“I want the inquiry to find out who’s responsible. I think the government knows more than they say.

“I have strength now I didn’t have before. Grief can completely destroy you.”

Julie’s e-petition – called “21 Reasons to Re-Open the Birmingham Pub Bombings Inquiry” – needs to collect 100,000 signatures by November to be debated in Parliament.