The brother of Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has been ordered to serve 16 years behind bars for raping his daughter.
Liam Adams has appeared before Belfast Crown Court this morning and was handed an 18 year sentence, with two years probation.
Adams (58) from Bernagh Drive, west Belfast was last month convicted of ten charges, including three of raping his daughter Áine over 30 years ago. The abuse was committed over a five-year period between 1977 and 1981, when she was aged between four and nine. He was also convicted on three charges of gross indecency and four of indecent assault.
Áine Adams, who is now 40, has waived her right to anonymity. She had told police her mother and uncle Gerry had confronted her father but he denied any wrongdoing.
She and her mother reported the abuse but later retracted because they felt police were more interested in the politics of her father and uncle.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD surrounded by colleagues last month as he spoke to reporters outside Leinster House on younger brother Liam Adams' conviction for a string of child sex abuse charges
Liam Adams initially denied being confronted by his brother because he said they had been brought up not to talk to the police about Gerry.
Sentencing
Judge Corinne Philpott QC handed down the sentence, which included a further two years on probation, at Belfast Crown Court.
Adams, dressed in brown jacket, jeans and blue checked shirt, showed no emotion as the sentence was handed down.
Áine Adams outside the High Court in 2011 after a ruling on her Father's extradition to the north, to face charges including raping her
Allegations since 1986
Áine's Mother, Sarah Campbell, told her ex-husband's trial she had first learned of the abuse following a disagreement with her daughter shortly before Christmas, 1986.
She found a note which her daughter had written. It read: "Mummy, this is why I am like this. Daddy made me sleep with him."
Liam Adams leaving Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin with his daughter Claire Smith in 2011
When Áine made the allegations public in a 2009 television documentary, Liam Adams fled to the Irish Republic, claiming he would not get a fair trial.
A short time later, Gerry Adams revealed that his father, Gerry senior, a veteran IRA man, had physically and sexually assaulted members of the family.
Liam Adams later handed himself in at a police station in Co. Sligo but could not be detained because officers did not have the correct documentation.
He was eventually handed over to PSNI officers at the border, after a lengthy and expensive extradition battle.
