Hundreds of former paramilitary suspects could win compensation after the Supreme Court yesterday erased Gerry Adams’ criminal record.
Judges overturned the Sinn Fein ex-leader’s convictions for trying to escape from the Maze prison in the 1970s on the basis his detention was unlawful.
It means the 71-year-old now has no criminal record from his central role in the Troubles, during which 3,600 died.
Ex-Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams’ (pictured) criminal record, which includes an attempted escape from Maze prison in the 1970s, has been erased after his original detention in prison was deemed unlawful
This is despite claims that he spent years as a member of the IRA’s ruling army council.
The Supreme Court said his 1973 internment was unlawful because it was not authorised by Willie Whitelaw, then secretary of state for Northern Ireland.
They ruled that his two convictions for escape bids – for which he was jailed for four-and-a-half years – should be quashed.
Mr Adams, who has always denied involvement in the IRA, immediately called on the Government ‘to identify and inform other internees whose internment may also have been unlawful’.
Lawyers representing some of the almost 2,000 terrorism suspects detained without trial in Northern Ireland in the 1970s said the ruling was hugely significant.
But it was slammed as ‘a sick joke and a slap in the face for victims of IRA terrorism’ by Paul Bristow, Conservative MP for Peterborough.
Dennis Hutchings, a former soldier accused of a Troubles-related shooting in 1974, said the decision was ‘an absolute disgrace’.
Dennis Hutchings, who earlier this year was due to face a non-jury trial for the attempted murder of John Pat Cunningham in 1974, branded the decision to excuse Mr Adams as a travesty
‘It’s a total travesty that they’ve cleared Adams while they’re still pursuing me,’ added the 78-year-old.
‘This is a man who everyone in Northern Ireland knows was heavily involved in the IRA for decades, and yet now the slate has been wiped clean.
‘But even though I was sent to Northern Ireland to do a job 45 years ago, the courts won’t drop the case against me.’
Mr Hutchings, from Cornwall, was due to face a non-jury trial in Belfast earlier this year for the attempted murder of John Pat Cunningham, 27, but the case has been delayed by the pandemic.
Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken said IRA victims would be left ‘angered and bewildered’.
He added: ‘Mr Adams is able to go into a British court more than 40 years later and seek legal redress before getting off on a technicality.
‘That is a lot more than hundreds of victims of the IRA are able to do.’ Internment was introduced in Northern Ireland in 1971.
It enabled the authorities to lock up those suspected of involvement in terrorism for 28 days even if there was insufficient evidence to charge them with an offence.
Almost 2,000 were eventually detained and historians regard the draconian measure as one of the worst mistakes of the Troubles, serving only to stoke the conflict.
Mr Adams was detained at the Maze high-security jail near Belfast, also known as Long Kesh internment camp.
Mr Adams twice attempted to escape from Maze prison (pictured), also known as Long Kesk internment camp, near Belfast in the 1970s
He was held with IRA terrorist Brendan Hughes, who went on to become the group’s Belfast commander and was jailed after weaponry and thousands of rounds of ammunition were found at his house.
Hughes, who took part in the 1980 hunger strikes in Northern Ireland, opposed the peace process before his death in 2008.
Mr Adams was charged with IRA membership in 1978 but the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence.
In 2014 he was arrested and questioned by the Police Service of Northern Ireland after being accused of involvement in the notorious 1972 abduction and murder of Jean McConville in Belfast. That case too was dropped.
Yesterday’s ruling stemmed from Cabinet documents released under the 30-year rule.
Mr Adams (left) was held with IRA terrorist Brendan Hughes (right) who would go on to take part in the 1980s hunger strikes in Northern Ireland
These exposed concern within Harold Wilson’s incoming Labour government in 1974 that Mr Adams’ detention had been signed only by a Tory junior minister and not by the future Lord Whitelaw.
In 2018 the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal rejected Mr Adams’ case. However in a unanimous decision delivered by Lord Kerr, a panel of judges yesterday ruled that the internment was ‘invalid since the secretary of state had not himself considered it’.
Mr Adams said last night the case was not about compensation but he added: ‘That’s maybe work for another day.’
The Daily Mail’s Witch Hunt Against Our Heroes campaign has highlighted how as many as 200 former soldiers have been investigated over allegations of murder and other crimes in the Troubles.