The civil case against Sinn Fein TD Gerry Adams was dropped after three victims of IRA bombings decided to drop it.
The Sinn Féin leader welcomed the decision to drop the civil case against him started in May 2022 Barry Laycock, injured in the Manchester Arndale bomb in 1996; Jonathan Ganesh, who was injured in Canary Wharf that year, and John Clark, injured in the Old Bailey bombing in 1973.
A civil case which was taken by three victims of IRA bombings against former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has been dropped at the High Court in London.
Under English and Welsh civil law, a case can be ordered to be dropped by a judge if they decide that it's an abuse of prosecution.
Ireland and Britain Editor with The Irish Times, Mark Hennessy said that what “saved” Gerry Adams from facing judgement was the action of an English judge rather than his own legal team.
Ireland and Britain Editor with The Irish Times, Mark Hennessy told Shane Coleman of The Hard Shoulder that personal injury action for damages is “an attempt to damage a defendant on wider charges”.
“In this case Mr Adams' wider role in the trouble, rather than a £1 vindicatory damages claim as the defendants put forward.
“Now it was striking that this was brought up by the judge on a number of occasions. This argument was never made by Adams's defense team.
“It was questioned by the judge on a number of occasions. It was clearly something that he was bothered about.”
The civil case against Gerry Adams was dropped: what now?
Asked whether the judge's take on it is this isn't the right forum for this particular type of case, Mr Hennessy said it would never be known.
“We'll never know because he was at the point of asking questions rather than making a judgment”, he told Newstalk.
He said Adams’ defense team seemed pleased with the outcome of the trial while the other side seemed “sulphurous”.
The conclusion of the case means that there is no ruling by the English High Court in Stratford in London that Gerry Adams was or was not a member of the IRA.
Gerry Adams. Picture by: PA ImagesNor is there any judgment by the High Court that he was involved in bombings in New York, England in the 1970s or 1990s.
Mr Hennessy said “there was absolutely zero chance that this case is going to be reheated by anybody who is currently involved in it.”
“There were two things in this whole case that became odder and odder as it came on. One was the abuse of process questions and clearly, as I said, the judge was very bothered at that point.
“Then there was the issue of the statute of limitations, which he focused on repeatedly.”
He explained that under English and Welsh law, a personal injuries claim has to be taken within three years of it happening.
Adams's legal representation made the point that in one case John Clark, the man who was injured in the old Bailey bomb, hadn't put in an application for nearly 50 years and that was clearly a breach of the spirit of the law.
Main Image: Former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams outside the High Court in Dublin. Picture by: Alamy.
