Adams tells libel case BBC programme was 'hatchet job' | Breaking News & Latest Ireland Updates

Adams tells libel case BBC programme was 'hatchet job' — Former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has called a BBC programme in which he claims he was defamed an "attempted hatchet job" that was "full of inaccura...

Former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has called a BBC programme in which he claims he was defamed an "attempted hatchet job" that was "full of inaccuracies".

He became emotional on the second day of his defamation case against the BBC as he was asked about his own internment and the hunger strikes of the 1970s.

Mr Adams alleges he was defamed in a 2016 Spotlight programme, which he says falsely claimed that he sanctioned the killing of former senior Sinn Féin official, Denis Donaldson.

Donaldson was shot dead in 2006, months after admitting being an informer for the police and M15 over two decades.

Mr Adams has denied any involvement in the killing.

He said that he was "astonished" when he watched the programme, which aired in September 2016, and called some of the events which were detailed "bogus and wrong".

Answering questions in the High Court from his counsel, Declan Doyle SC, Mr Adams spoke about how he became an "ideological socialist republican" in the early 1970s after witnessing civil unrest in Northern Ireland amid the British Army operation there.

He was asked by Mr Justice Alexander Owens to summarise how he became involved in the political movement.

Mr Adams said it began with helping families who had become refugees after fleeing their homes from parts of Belfast. He described how he supported many with his community activism and how that was something he was very proud of.

Mr Adams then described how he was beaten unconscious after being arrested and how he was interned in Long Kesh prison.

He became emotional when he talked about the hunger strikers, he said how during the long summer of 1981 many people were killed, including prison officers, soldiers and IRA volunteers, but he said ten men died on the H Block and that was something that should not have happened.

Mr Adams said his central focus was to build Sinn Féin as a party and to have an electoral strategy that would show people there was an alternative to violence.

His evidence continued with a description of the peace process and description of his involvement with the Good Friday Agreement.

He told the court he knew Donaldson and that he liked him. He said he knew his wife and his daughter, but Mr Adams said he did not have any dealings with Donaldson and that he worked in another level of the Sinn Féin party.

He said Donaldson was an administrator in Sinn Féin who worked in an office within Stormont and that he was arrested in 2002 for allegedly running a spy ring.

Those charges were dropped in November 2005 and it was following that that Donaldson was told by police he was about to be revealed as a spy.

Mr Adams told the High Court how, in his position as then president of Sinn Féin, he told a member of the party executive to find out the truth and that Donaldson admitted he had been an agent for 20 years.

Mr Adams said Donaldson was then dismissed from the party.

Donaldson was found shot dead at a cottage near Glenties in Co Donegal, in April 2006.

Mr Adams said he was shocked that Donaldson was still in a place where he had been exposed, after a Sunday newspaper report pictured him there.

We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

Jury shown Spotlight documentary

Later, the documentary at the centre of the defamation case was shown to the jury at the High Court.

Mr Adams alleges the programme and accompanying online article by the BBC defamed him by saying he had "sanctioned the murder".

Giving evidence at the High Court, Mr Adams said the first he knew about the documentary was a letter he received in June 2016 from a BBC journalist.

The letter, signed by Jennifer O'Leary, gave details of a number of allegations about Mr Adams that were going to be made in the Spotlight documentary.

That letter, a follow-up months later and a short reply in the form of a solicitor's letter from Mr Adams’ legal team in which he denied all knowledge of the killing of Mr Donaldson and categorically denied he had anything to do with it, all formed "Exhibit 1" in the case.

It was at this point, Mr Adam’s counsel Declan Doyle SC suggested to the judge that the documentary should be shown.

The jury of seven men and five women watched the documentary via two TV screens that were wall-mounted in court 24.

After the one-hour documentary was shown in court, Mr Adams continued to give evidence.

His legal counsel, Declan Doyle SC asked for a short clip to be replayed which included the particular words his client was in particularly defamed, he said.

In the documentary, the allegations that Mr Adams had sanctioned the killing of Donaldson came from another informer whose identity was kept secret by the BBC, he was called "Martin".

In the programme, "Martin" said he believed the shooting of Donaldson was sanctioned by the man at the top of the Republican movement and that that was Mr Adams.

Asked how he felt when the programme was aired, Mr Adams told the High Court he was astonished that it had aired and he described it as an "attempted hatchet job".

He called it "poor journalism", particularly he said those pieces that contained the allegation that he had any part in the murder of Donaldson.

The case continues tomorrow morning.

Additional reporting PA