OUTBURST AFTER RAPIST-SHIELDING ACCUSATIONS

GERRY Adams has said claims that he protected his paedophile brother are ‘vicious, obscene and offensive’.

Edwin Poots, Northern health minister, accused Adams of not reporting his brother Liam to the authorities when he knew the sexual abuse had taken place after Liam confessed to him in 2001.

Mr Poots said: ‘There is a standard in life that people expect and when people are aware of paedophile activities taking place, they should report it. The leader of Sinn Fein, the president, was aware and he believed it and he did not report it.’

A jury at Belfast Crown Court last month found Liam Adams, 58, guilty on all ten counts of rape and sexual abuse against his daughter Áine between 1977 and 1983. He is to be sentenced this month.

For his part, Gerry Adams has since been accused of withholding information about his niece’s sexual abuse by his brother.

The Sinn Féin leader told BBC Radio Ulster yesterday he ‘tries not to rise’ to the comments but he dismissed the claims as ‘vicious, obscene and offensive’.

He said: ‘Edwin Poots is more to be pitied than to be scorned. If that’s the sum total of his contribution to making life better for people he needs to serve as health minister, then God help us all.’

There are a number of official inquiries set up to look into Adams’s knowledge of the abuse, including one ordered by t he North’s Attorney-General.