Gerry Adams ‘as culpable as those who planted IRA bombs’, high court hears | Gerry Adams
The high court said at the start of the civil trial that Gerry Adams was as guilty of the IRA bombings on the UK mainland as the people who planted and detonated the devices.
The former Sinn Féin leader is being sued for symbolic “justice” damages of £1 per person by John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock, who were injured in the Old Bailey bombing in 1973 and the London Docklands and Manchester bombings in 1996 respectively.
They claim that Adams, who is believed to have helped bring about the Northern Ireland peace process, “was an influential force in the organization of the PIRA”. [provisional IRA] and the construction of a two-pronged attack – ArmaLite and the ballot box. One step into each camp.”
Anne Studd KC, who opened the plaintiffs’ case in London on Monday, said in written submissions: “Their focus is on shedding light on the defendant’s involvement in the PIRA during this conflict and on establishing that, on the balance of probabilities, it was the defendant himself. [Adams] “He was so intertwined with the PIRA organization that he was as guilty of the attacks that gave rise to these allegations as those who planted and detonated the bombs.”
He added: “There is no doubt that the defendant contributed to the peace in Northern Ireland, but the plaintiffs say that on the evidence he also contributed to the war.”
Studd told the court that Adams admitted his involvement with the IRA to a special branch officer after his arrest in 1972 and attended two meetings with government officials in the same year “as a member of the PIRA and with the authority to act on behalf of the organisation”.
The plaintiffs’ case also relies on evidence from IRA volunteers and Troubles-era intelligence officials, including Dolours Price, one of nine people imprisoned for the Old Bailey bombing in 1973.
In addition, Studd claimed that Adams began writing a weekly column for the Republican News under the pseudonym Brownie while he was in custody in the 1970s; these included a 1976 article: “Right or wrong, I am an IRA volunteer.”
Adams, 77, who is in court and is expected to give evidence next week, has always denied being a member of the IRA.
His lawyer, Edward Craven KC, said in written submissions that the plaintiffs had waited decades too long to bring the case, adding: “Even if the claim does not necessarily fail by statute of limitations, it is inevitable that the claim will fail on the merits. “The defendant vehemently denies any involvement in the bombings.
“Plaintiffs bear the burden of proving factual and legal liability. Given the seriousness of the allegations (‘the most serious allegations imaginable’), this is a heavy burden that can only be alleviated by the presentation of credible and convincing evidence. The evidence that Plaintiffs intend to rely on at this hearing does not come even close to that.”
Craven said it was “extraordinary and inexplicable” that if law enforcement believed there was reasonable suspicion of Adams’ involvement, they never arrested him, while many republicans, including Price, harbor deep hostility towards the former Sinn Féin leader and the president because they strongly oppose the peace process.
Craven said the court was asked to “find, based on multiple and predominantly anonymous hearsay evidence, a senior political figure responsible for extraordinarily serious crimes committed more than a quarter to half a century ago, in a context of deep partisan conflict that gave rise to numerous personal and political grievances, divisions and hostilities, as well as numerous competing narratives about significant events.”
He said that even if Adams was a member of the IRA army council, as claimed but denied, “the fact of that membership alone would not be sufficient to make him responsible for the bombings that were carried out”.
The trial continues.
