Jury in Dublin reconvenes to reach verdict

The jury hearing Gerry Adams’ libel case against the BBC has reconvened to consider its findings.

The former Sinn Féin leader is seeking upwards of €200,000 (£168,000) in damages at the High Court in Dublin over a story in which an anonymous contributor alleged he sanctioned the 2006 murder of a British agent, Denis Donaldson.

Mr Adams, 76, denies any involvement.

He alleges he was defamed in a BBC NI Spotlight programme broadcast in 2016 and an accompanying online article.

The trial at the High Court in Dublin heard four weeks of evidence from 10 witnesses, including Mr Adams and BBC NI reporter Jennifer O’Leary.

Mr Adams brought the case in Dublin as the Spotlight programme was able to be watched in the Republic of Ireland, where it was seen by about 16,000 people.

He was a TD (member of the Irish parliament) for Louth at the time it was broadcast.

The online article had approximately 700 hits in the Republic during a 14-month period after publication in September 2016.

The judge presiding over the case, Mr Justice Alexander Owens, completed his recap of the evidence of all witnesses on Wednesday.

He said that he did not think the jury will be deliberating for long, as the issues are “quite easy” to determine.

They have up to five questions to answer.

The judge told the jurors that if they award damages to Mr Adams, they should base it on his recent and current reputation.

The jury will consider damages only if they find Mr Adams was defamed and they reject the BBC’s “fair publication” defence.

A central issue of the trial has been Mr Adams’ alleged past as an IRA leader – a claim he has always rejected.

Mr Justice Owens said “a person’s reputation can change” and the jury should “evaluate” it as of “2016 and now”.

Mr Donaldson was once a key figure in Sinn Féin’s rise as a political force in Northern Ireland.

But he was found murdered in 2006 after it emerged he had worked for the police and MI5 inside Sinn Féin for 20 years.

In 2009, the Real IRA said it had murdered him.

Based on sources, Spotlight claimed the killing was the work of the Provisional IRA.

Mr Donaldson was interned without trial for periods in the 1970s and, after signing the Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Féin appointed him as its key administrator in the party’s Stormont offices.

In 2005, Mr Donaldson confessed he was a spy for British intelligence for two decades, before disappearing from Belfast.

He was found dead in a small, rundown cottage in Glenties, County Donegal.

Mr Adams was the president of republican party Sinn Féin from 1983 until 2018.

He served as MP in his native Belfast West from 1983 to 1992 and again from 1997 until 2011 before sitting as a TD (Teachta Dála) in the Dáil (Irish parliament) between 2011 and 2020.

Mr Adams led the Sinn Féin delegation during peace talks that eventually brought an end to the Troubles after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

He was detained in the early 1970s when the government in Northern Ireland introduced internment without trial for those suspected of paramilitary involvement.

Mr Adams has consistently denied being a member of the IRA.