Why Adams case collapsed
Former Sinn Féin president made bomb victims an offer they had to accept
“The dropping of the case against Gerry Adams is inexplicable,” a headline on the Telegraph’s opinion page said at the weekend. But let’s give it a try.
The claim
Three men brought civil claims against Adams for assault and battery arising from injuries each suffered in bomb attacks for which the Provisional Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility:
John Clark was injured when a bomb exploded outside the Old Bailey in London on 8 March 1973.
Jonathan Ganesh was injured when a bomb exploded at Docklands in London on 9 February 1996.
Barry Laycock was injured when a bomb exploded at the Arndale Centre in Manchester on 15 June 1996
Unusually, each claimant asked for just £1 in “vindicatory” damages. As their counsel Anne Studd KC told the High Court on 9 March,
their case is not focused upon their injuries and the considerable losses that have resulted from those injuries. Their focus is to shine a light upon the involvement of the defendant in the Provisional IRA in the course of that conflict and to prove on balance of probabilities that he was so intrinsically involved in the Provisional IRA organisation that he is as culpable for the assaults giving rise to these claims as the individuals who planted and detonated the bombs.
The defence
Under the Limitation Act 1980, a claim for personal injury arising from an assault must normally be brought within three years. But the time limit does not apply if the court decides that “it would be equitable to allow an action to proceed”.
This claim was issued in 2022. But Edward Craven KC, for Adams, told the court that there was no legal or practical reason why it could not have been issued long before then.
Even if the claim was not now bound to fail on limitation grounds, he continued, it must inevitably fail on its merits: the claimants’ evidence came nowhere near implicating his client.
Adams, a former president of Sinn Féin, denies any involvement in the bombings. He has repeatedly denied ever being in the IRA or on its army council.
An unexpected development
During the two-week hearing, evidence for the claimants was given by journalists and others. Adams gave evidence in his own defence.
Closing speeches were being delivered when there was an unexpected development.
