Friday, December 18, 2009
“The only way this can happen now is through the courts.”
Today’s Irish News carries the front-page story of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams’ statement last night on the issuing of an arrest warrant for his younger brother Liam, who is in his 50s, in relation to serious allegations of child sex abuse. According to the Irish News report, Liam Adams had failed to appear at a pre-arranged preliminary inquiry at a Belfast court. Other reports, including the BBC, state that the arrest warrant was issued last year. Liam Adams’ house in Andersonstown is reportedly up for sale and “sources” told the Irish News that he had fled across the border several weeks ago. From the Irish News report
The investigation is said to be a protracted one and involves allegations dating back a number of years. The alleged victim and Gerry Adams have made statements to police in connection with the investigation. Gardai have been contacted and it is understood that Liam Adams may have fled to the Republic.
Updated below the fold. Further Update UTV Insight Special available online.
The iol report adds
The 61-year-old republican leader has apparently urged his younger brother to hand himself in and has made clear the alleged victim – a woman now in her 30s - must get justice.
The West Belfast MP made a statement to police in which he expressed support for her.
The allegations are believed to date back more than 20 years, and Liam Adams, who had been living in west Belfast, has been questioned on a number of occasions by detectives.
The arrest warrant was issued last year when he failed to appear in court for a preliminary inquiry.
And from the Irish News
In a statement last night the Sinn Féin president said the victim “must get justice”.
The West Belfast MP, who has been aware of the allegations for some time said: “Since the first day I spoke to [her] about the abuse she suffered I believed her.
“She must get justice.
“The only way this can happen now is through the courts. I have made a statement to the PSNI in support of [her].”
Update details from the RTÉ report
The story came to light after the woman at the centre of the abuse allegations waved her anonymity in order to tell her story.
She is making public allegations that over a period of at least eight years, beginning in the late 1970s, she was abused by her father. She will feature in a special UTV programme at 8pm tonight.
She claims she can remember the alleged offences, including rape, from the time she was four.
In November of last year, 30 years after some of the alleged abuses and following a PSNI investigation, Liam Adams was to face 23 court charges - but he went missing.
From the UTV report
Eventually, Aine wrote her mother a letter telling her about the abuse. After informing social services and the police, she told her uncle, one of the most recognisable republicans in Northern Ireland, Gerry Adams.
The Sinn Fein president told UTV he believed her story from the beginning.
“Aine was about fourteen at the time, she was a wee kid, but she was always a very good wee girl and always you know, I just couldn’t imagine a child like her making up such a serious allegation.
“Although I didn’t have the awful details of the wrong that was done to her, I think it was doubly done by Liam refusing, called her a liar, and denying emphatically that he had done any wrong.”
And
Mr Adams attempted to make his brother answer for his alleged crimes, by trying to set up a meeting between Aine and her father so she could put the accusations to him directly.
“I tried to create a circumstance where Liam would come forward and do precisely what his daughter wanted.
“On the two occasions we had an arrangement where he was prepared to come along and do what Aine had requested and on two occasions at the very last minute that broke down.
“Now I mean I was disappointed but Aine was even more disappointed understandably.”
Aine said she attended the “rushed” meetings with her uncle on her own, but said the tone changed as Mr Adams started to defend his brother.
“I got my eyes opened when I was going to the meetings.
“It was turning into Liam was the victim.”
Mr Adams has refuted the allegation, saying “any suggestion that in some way the perpetrator was on a level par with the victim is mistaken, as that was never and is not my position.”
Aine has since stopped contact with the West Belfast MP, after writing him a final letter.
She believes she was let down by her uncle.
“I ended up saying look do you know what it is, you have failed me again, when twenty years later I’ve asked you to do one thing.”, she said.
Pete Baker @ 03:26 PM
A Shinner accused of child abuse?
No! Can’t be right. Shurely shome mishtake.
Fine, upstanding chaps to a man.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 05:11 PMAt least ole Gerry has left it up to the authorities. In the old days his little bro would be taken in the boot of a car into the woods.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 05:14 PM“In the old days his little bro would be taken in the boot of a car into the woods.”
It’s odd that Gerry seems to be overly keen to deny his other brother due process in this example, since he has already declared his said brother guilty without a trial (“I believed her.”) Why is that?
To hear Gerry speak, you’d almost think that he that he was so upstanding that he could never have been compromised by security services by this in the past.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 05:29 PMUpdate to the original post.
From the UTV report
Mr Adams attempted to make his brother answer for his alleged crimes, by trying to set up a meeting between Aine and her father so she could put the accusations to him directly.
“I tried to create a circumstance where Liam would come forward and do precisely what his daughter wanted.
“On the two occasions we had an arrangement where he was prepared to come along and do what Aine had requested and on two occasions at the very last minute that broke down.
“Now I mean I was disappointed but Aine was even more disappointed understandably.”
Aine said she attended the “rushed” meetings with her uncle on her own, but said the tone changed as Mr Adams started to defend his brother.
“I got my eyes opened when I was going to the meetings.
“It was turning into Liam was the victim.”
Mr Adams has refuted the allegation, saying “any suggestion that in some way the perpetrator was on a level par with the victim is mistaken, as that was never and is not my position.”
Aine has since stopped contact with the West Belfast MP, after writing him a final letter.
She believes she was let down by her uncle.
“I ended up saying look do you know what it is, you have failed me again, when twenty years later I’ve asked you to do one thing.”, she said.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 06:12 PMI think this is on insight tonight, the whole sordid ugly disgusting story.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 07:24 PMposted by Kathy Collins
My prayers are with Aine.
It is very interesting that Gerry Adams states in his blog of Nov. 27th 2009 in ‘Cherishing all the cvhildren equally’ based on the sex abuse done to children by priest——
Any reader of the Blog who is affected in any way by abuse should contact the Samaritans, their local Rape Crisis Centre, helplines, or other appropriate statutory or voluntary organisations and services.
But what did Gerry do to his niece…he tried to set up a meeting between her…the victim who was raped as a child—-with her abuser, Gerry’s brother. How twisted. Why didn’t he contact the police and have the police deal with the rapist. It is tramatic enough for the victim to face her rapist in court…let alone in Gerry’s office.
Now to the political side of this. The warrant was issued last year????? And the brother wasn’t picked up? I have to also ask—-did Gerry make any deals with the authorities to give his brother time to escape across the border…like maybe a statement that the orange order parades have a right to march in the south? This entire situation stinks from the top on down and suspect.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 07:30 PMWell said, Kathy C
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 08:09 PMKathy, Gerry Adams is acting to protect his own reputation as he did when his other brother was identified as a tout. Instead of having his younger brother go through the ‘due process’ of a kangaroo court (run by agents of the British state in any case) and ending up in a ditch with a hood over his head like other ‘touts’, Gerry’s brother received a transfer to another parish.
It doesn’t do Gerry’s republican lineage any good if the Adams Family is comprised of a brother who is a tout (allegedly) and another brother who is a child molester (allegedly), while having a brother who is a mass murderer (allegedly) and an abductor of women (allegedly) enhances it enormously.
It is only now that the case is coming to a TV near you soon do we see Gerry change tact and go from an ‘internal solution’ of seeking to keep it within the family to calling for an external solution. This psychopath cares not one iota about his brother since he now acts to deny him due process by declaring him guilty without a trial. He does this to distance himself from his previous actions in seeking to keep the matter internal and out of the public arena.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 08:14 PMIn short, he is acting to present himself as being on the side of the victim of the abuse rather than being on the side of the perpetrator of it when in reality, like all self-serving psychopaths, he is on his own side only.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 08:26 PMAlias
I don’t get the psychopath charge on Adams. Can you explain? I though he was the strategist.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 08:39 PMKathy,
“But what did Gerry do to his niece…he tried to set up a meeting between her…the victim who was raped as a child—-with her abuser, Gerry’s brother. How twisted. Why didn’t he contact the police and have the police deal with the rapist.”
Alas, it’s an Irish solution to an Irish problem. We’ve seen a lot of that lately.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 08:41 PMInteresting programme. His neice came across as articulate and clever but not insincere. Gerry was putting a brave face on it but it was highly embarrassing. Big of him to believe his niece and then do nothing for twenty odd years.
Fr Troy is is in danger of ruin in the programme and it just shows that if you lie down with the Antichrist you deserve all you get. It is clear that some of the bad elements of the Church have a soft spot for Sinn Fein and I hope they’re cleared out with the paedophiles.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 08:46 PMWhat a revealing programme!! Can anyone shed any light on who got Father Troy to visit Aine, as I missed that small piece of it. Who put him up to it? An awful lot of pressure was brought to bear on this girl to shut up, she did right in coming out with it. Liam Adams should be handed into the PSNI or Guards, the sooner the better to answer these allegations.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 08:46 PMOnly Asking
Liam Adams, her father, is said to have gone to Fr Troy but if you believe that, you’ll believe anything. Clearly Gerry Adams had a hand in it, at least in the sense of prompting his brother.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 08:52 PMwould anybody here vote for a man with accusations like this hanging over him?
at best adams is like the bishops who turned a blind eye to chils abuse accusations in order to protect the organisation of the church.
thank god adams will never be in a position to take political power in ireland - god help us all if such a scenario ever developed?
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 08:55 PMOnly Asking,
“Liam Adams should be handed into the PSNI or Guards, the sooner the better to answer these allegations.”
That’s sure to happen and when it does Aine will get her day in court. Let’s see how His Grisliness copes with that.
But Liam Adams, gross though the allegations are, is small fry compared to the bishops who were accessories to child rape. I’ve said it elsewhere but will say it again: when will they be handed in to the Guards?
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 08:57 PMWell said, Lorraine
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 08:58 PMLorraine,
You got there before me!
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 08:59 PMFabianus
Stop trying to spin this. Lorraine compares Gerry Adams to the Bishops not the paedophile brother. That is the correct comparison. This one won’t spin, son.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 09:00 PMFather Troy left Northern Ireland very suddenly. I wonder if he knew this day was going to come.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 09:18 PMJohn,
“This one won’t spin, son.”
Sorry, dad, but the spinning is being done largely by victims of clerical child rape who took their own lives out of desperation, and they’re doing the spinning in their graves.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 09:38 PMFabianus
I think you’ll find that the focus is on the perpetrators of these vile acts and on those who protected them.
Gerry Adams has been involved in protecting the family rather than the victim and therefore ranks alongside the Bishops who protected paedophile priests.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 09:46 PMadams had no problem telling the men charged with assaulting bobby tohill to hand themselves over to the police: why did it take so long and a tv programmes to coerce him into telling his blood brother to hand himself over - methinks the lies of the great liar are becoming more and more transparent
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 10:00 PMThat’s sure to happen and when it does Aine will get her day in court. Let’s see how His Grisliness copes with that.
I’m wondering how it took so long for this to come out into the media. And this book that is coming out in February will also uncover some truths re Adams. I think this is very much due to Sinn Fein losing their grip, and jurnos are now bringing out into the open most likely what they have known for a long time. Could be this didn’t reach public attention as Adams may have been off limits due to his role in the peace process, but the truth will out. I’d say a resignation from him wouldn’t be amis sometime soon, I’d lay odds on it being this coming year.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 10:12 PMJohn,
“Gerry Adams has been involved in protecting the family rather than the victim and therefore ranks alongside the Bishops who protected paedophile priests.”
I believe you misunderstood me. I was also saying that Adams ranks alongside the bishops in culpability.
But they did more than simply protect the rapists from justice. They actively aided them in escaping justice. This may not be a crime in the RoI but it certainly is in the rest of the civilised world.
Posted by on Dec 18, 2009 @ 10:13 PM
