IRA bomb victims sue Gerry Adams
Ex-Sinn Fein chief denies being in terror group. But new court case will hear claim he masterminded three atrocities
GERRY ADAMS is being sued in the High Court for his alleged role in masterminding three IRA bombings, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Three victims of the 1996 terror attacks in Manchester and Docklands and the Old Bailey car bombing in 1973 are seeking nominal damages of £1 in a landmark case that could see long-standing accusations against Mr Adams tested in court for the first time.
The former Sinn Fein leader, 73, has always denied membership of the IRA or any involvement in its terror campaign in Northern Ireland and on the mainland.
Yesterday, a spokesman for Mr Adams said: ‘Mr Adams rejects the claims made in the notice of legal action. His solicitor will deal with it.’
In 2014 he was questioned for four days by police investigating the murder of Jean McConville, a 37-year-old widow and mother
‘Adams will have the chance to answer the allegations in court’
of ten who was abducted from her Belfast home in 1972, shot and secretly buried. Mr Adams was released without charge. Twice in the 1970s he was held on suspicion of IRA membership but has never been prosecuted.
Last week, lawyers acting for victims served him with notice of the High Court claim. The claimants are fighting, as they see it, to bring Mr Adams to justice and will accuse him of being one of the guiding minds behind the IRA’s bombing campaign.
Jon Ganesh, a security guard injured in the 1996 Docklands attack, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We have to make a stand and get justice for the victims. Not just my friends who died at Canary Wharf, or the three of us, but all victims of the IRA’s despicable campaign.
‘It’s not about any money, which is why we’re only claiming for £1 – it’s about the principle. It’s a historic moment. And Gerry Adams will have a chance to defend himself in court and answer the allegations.’
Breaking a 17-month ceasefire, the 3,000lb Docklands truck bomb
ripped through South Quay near Canary Wharf in February 1996 killing two, injuring more than 100 and causing £150million damage.
The other claimants bringing the extraordinary legal case against Mr Adams are Barry Laycock, a rail worker injured by the 3,300lb truck bomb detonated in Manchester in June 1996. It had three times’ the explosive power of the Canary Wharf bomb, injured more than 250 people and caused £700 million worth of damage. The third claimant, John Clark, a former police officer, was injured in the Old Bailey bombing operation that launched the IRA’s mainland campaign. A 60year-old man died and more than 200 people were injured.
Both the Manchester and Docklands attacks were carried out by the IRA’s South Armagh Brigade on the orders of the group’s central army council. In 1997 an SAS unit captured an IRA sniper team in South Armagh that included James McArdle. His thumbprints matched those the Docklands bomb investigators obtained and he was found to have driven the truck bomb from Northern Ireland to London. In 1998 McArdle was jailed for 25 years over the attacks, as well as given 50 years for his role as an IRA sniper, but was released in 2000 under the the Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Adams has repeatedly denied accusations that from the 1970s he was a senior member of the IRA and part of its army council until the 2000s. He served as president of Sinn Fein from 1983, when he was also the MP for Belfast West but did not sit in the House of Commons due to his party’s boycott.
The claimants’ lawyers have three months to serve the evidence
behind their claim before a High Court judge rules on the case.
Their work will involve painstaking research, including the examination of thousands of documents.
It is being funded through CrowdJustice, an online fundraising platform specifically designed for legal action, and are campaigning to raise an initial £100,000 from the public. Law firm McCue Jury & Partners, who are representing the three claimants, successfully sued IRA man John Downey in 2019 over his role in the Hyde Park bomb attack in 1982 which left 11 military personnel dead.
They also successfully sued four men over the 1998 Omagh bombing, two of whom were later retried and found responsible for the attack that killed 29. Matthew Jury, of McCue Jury & Partners, said: ‘All the claimants are seeking is the truth, for them and on behalf of all the IRA’s victims. It’s an opportunity for Mr Adams to give his full and honest account of his part in The Troubles. If not, then it will be for the court to decide what role he played.’