The BBC defamed Gerry Adams by publishing a claim that he sanctioned the murder of a British agent, a High Court jury has found, awarding the former Sinn Féin leader €100,000 in damages to restore his reputation.
Mr Adams claimed the 2016 Spotlight programme and a related article defamed him by falsely accusing him of giving “the final say” in the murder of MI5 informant Denis Donaldson at a cottage in Glenties, Co Donegal, in 2006. Mr Adams described the allegation during the trial as a “grievous smear”.
The BBC had denied defaming Mr Adams.
The jury agreed with Mr Adams that words published in the programme and article were understood to mean he sanctioned the murder. The broadcaster argued the claim had been couched as an allegation.
Who is Michael Kelley, the man questioned over the murder of Michael Gaine?
Ireland’s extraordinary education revolution laid bare by two new reports
The Macron shove is not a sign of a very French love story, but something more disturbing
Ruby Eastwood: Why would anyone choose to live in a city as ridiculous as Dublin?
It claimed its publication was fair, reasonable and in the public interest, but the jury rejected this defence.
Much of the evidence heard during the trial concerned Mr Adams’s reputation. His legal team argued he had the reputation of a “peacemaker”, responsible, alongside others, for bringing an end to the conflict in Northern Ireland.
The BBC contended Mr Adams’s case was a “cynical attempt” to “launder” a reputation of being in the Provisional IRA and a member of its decision-making body, known as the army counsel.
During his evidence, Mr Adams spoke about his coming of age in Belfast, his political awakening, major events during the Troubles and the efforts to end it.
He slammed the BBC Spotlight programme, describing it as an “attempted hatchet job” that was “full of inaccuracies”.
His “primary concern” was the allegation in the programme inferred to his peers, his community and the wider republican family, that they’d been “led up the garden path” with the peace process.
In July 2005, the IRA ordered units to lay down arms and instructed its volunteers “to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means”.
The programme gave the impression “that, in fact, the IRA had killed this man [Donaldson], and I had sanctioned it”. It was later put to Mr Adams that there were questions around continued IRA activity in the time preceding Mr Donaldson’s death.
During cross-examination, Paul Gallagher SC, for the BBC, and Mr Adams engaged in sharp exchanges, in particular when Mr Gallagher asked about various IRA atrocities.
Several times Mr Adams asked how Mr Gallagher’s line of questioning related to the 2016 programme. Mr Gallagher suggested Mr Adams was seeking to divert from uncomfortable questioning. “The IRA had left the field,” Mr Adams said.
Mr Adams acknowledged that people have for many years made allegations about him, including that he was in the IRA and sat on its army council. He also repeatedly denied these.
At times, certain members of the jury, the majority of whom appeared to be aged in their 20s and 30s, looked captivated by Mr Adams as he gave evidence.
Mr Adams’s quips from the witness box were often met with laughter in court, including from the jury. Asked about a photograph showing him wearing a black beret at a republican funeral in the early 1970s, Mr Adams commented that he looked like a character from the British sitcom of the same era: Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.
In arguing their respective cases about Mr Adams’s reputation, both sides showed the jury montages of newsreel clips and segments from documentaries.
The BBC’s included past statements made by Mr Adams outlining his attitude to IRA violence.
One was of Mr Adams’s infamous 1995 comment: “They [the IRA] haven’t gone away, you know.”
Mr Adams’s side introduced clips including of him attending the White House in the 1990s, at meetings with Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton, and shaking hands with then prince Charles in 2015.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens returned several times to the analogy of the “curate’s egg” when explaining the concept of reputation. The story goes that the curate’s egg was good in parts, and bad in parts. The same could be possible of Mr Adams’s reputation, the judge said.
Jennifer O’Leary, the BBC journalist behind the Spotlight programme, said it was in the public interest that the programme included the allegation about Mr Adams. “Was I to ignore it?” she asked.
She insisted that the programme framed the claim as an allegation.
She said she exercised the “utmost care and responsibility” and said five sources independently corroborated the claim.
Ms O’Leary denied she went about finding “yes men” to corroborate the claim made by Martin, the name given to the anonymised Spotlight contributor.
Towards the end of the trial, Mr Adams was joined in court by musician Christy Moore.
They chatted affably in the May sunshine during a break in evidence after the court heard claims from Ann Travers – whose sister was shot dead by the IRA in 1984 – that Mr Adams’s reputation was one of a “warmonger”.
Following the verdict, Mr Adams moved steadily out of Court 24 as he received well-wishes and handshakes. Outside, he told reporters: “Tá mé an-sásta leis an verdict.”
