Historic IRA killing case is adjourned

THERE is no evidence against a veteran republican charged in connection with one of Northern Ireland’s most notorious murders, a court has heard.

Ivor Bell, 77, from west Belfast faces counts of aiding and abetting the killing of Jean McConville and of IRA membership.

A hearing in Belfast’s Laganside court complex was told the evidence, which includes tape recordings from researchers at Boston College, was inadmissible.

Solicitor Peter Corrigan, representing Bell, said: “The evidence presented at the police station does not amount to a row of beans.”

Mrs McConville, a widow, was dragged from her home in the Divis flats by an IRA gang of up to 12 men and women after being accused of passing information to the British Army in Belfast – an allegation discredited by the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman.

She was shot in the back of the head and buried 50 miles from her home. The IRA did not admit her murder until 1999 when information was passed on to police in the Irish Republic.

She became one of the “Disappeared”, and it was not until August 2003 that her remains were eventually found, buried on Shelling Hill beach, Co Louth.

Nobody has ever been charged with her murder.

Objecting to a Public Prosecution Service (PPS) request for a fourto-six week adjournment, Mr Corrigan claimed the well-publi- cised lack of police resources for legacy cases meant his “elderly” client was not being treated fairly.

He said: “We know that the Police Service of Northern Ireland has stated that they are not resourced to look into the cases for example of Bloody Sunday and the murders by the Glenanne gang.”

The adjournment was granted.