On hearing of Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams getting damages, my thoughts are with IRA victims, says Jim Allister

He was commenting after a High Court judge ruled yesterday that former Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams was wrongly denied compensation after his convictions for attempted prison breaks were quashed, a court has ruled.

Mr Allister said: “With today’s ruling that Gerry ‘I was never in the IRA’ Adams should be considered for compensation over his nullified conviction, our courts are in danger of losing public credibility and being seen as becoming a tool of orchestrated claims against the state.

“My thoughts, again, are with the countless victims of the IRA who only ever got a pittance in compensation when loved ones were butchered by terrorists.”

Mr Adams won a Supreme Court appeal in 2020 over historical convictions for two attempts to escape the Long Kesh internment camp in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

However, he was subsequently denied a payout for the wrongful convictions when he applied for compensation from Stormont’s Department of Justice.

That decision was ruled unlawful by a High Court judge in Belfast on Friday.

Mr Adams was interned without trial in 1973 at Long Kesh, which was also known as the Maze prison.

At his Supreme Court hearing, Mr Adams’ lawyers argued that, because the interim custody order (ICO) used to initially detain him was not authorised by the then-secretary of state for Northern Ireland Willie Whitelaw, his detention was unlawful and his convictions should be overturned.

The legal bid to overturn the convictions was prompted after previously confidential details around the signing of the ICO emerged when state papers were released from the archives.

The Supreme Court ruled that Mr Adams’ detention was unlawful because it had not been “considered personally” by Mr Whitelaw.

However, in refusing the later bid for compensation, the DoJ argued that payment for a miscarriage of justice was only due in circumstances where a “newly-discovered fact” had led to the overturning of convictions.

The department said in Mr Adams’ case the quashing of the conviction was based on an interpretation of what was required in law in the 1970s, as opposed to a new or newly-discovered fact.

The former Sinn Fein leader challenged the DoJ decision in Belfast High Court and a judge ruling on the appeal found in his favour on Friday.

Mr Justice Colton said the issue related to the ICO was not a fact known to the applicant or to the court at the time of his trial.

He said it formed the basis of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“I therefore conclude that the DoJ erred in law in determining that the reversal of the applicant’s conviction arose from a legal ruling on facts which had been known all along,” said the judge.

“I am satisfied that the applicant meets the test for compensation under section 133 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.”

Justice Colton quashed the DoJ decision, declared it unlawful and ordered that Mr Adams’ application be reconsidered.

Responding to the ruling, a spokeswoman for the DoJ said: “We note the judgment and are considering it.”

DUP Legacy spokesperson Emma Little Pengelly MLA said: “Gerry Adams as the leader of Sinn Fein eulogised and sought to explain the actions of the PIRA for decades. For innocent victims of the IRA to see Gerry Adams now receiving compensation will be sickening.”

“Whatever administration mistakes were made leading to this court ruling, the entire process will be seen to have made a mockery of justice.

“Rather than the Department of Justice paying money to Adams, I would like to see more money made available to help innocent victims of terrorism. Let's remember when we introduced a pension for victims, it was Sinn Fein who blocked the pension being paid because they wanted it to include IRA men too. I'm glad on that occasion the Courts sided with innocent victims and forced Michelle O'Neill to change course. "

Kenny Donaldson, director of services with the South Easter Fermanagh Foundation, said it seemed like another instance where the law was being manipulated “for the purpose of historical rewrite”.

He added: “Innocent victims and survivors of terrorism will have their head in their hands when watching the news this evening or reading tomorrow's newspapers.

"Sadly, today's ruling by the Court is reflected in other aspects of public discourse, for example, the Secretary of State recently stating; ‘Martin McGuinness will, along with Gerry Adams, be remembered for the courage and leadership he showed in persuading the Republican movement of peace’.

"No they won't be, by innocent victims/survivors of terrorism, they will be remembered for their roles within the Provisional Republican Movement, which itself brought devastation to many homes across this land and well beyond".

"What do the rank and file of the Provisional IRA who lay in ditches and prison having debased their own humanity, murdering their own neighbours in carrying out the Republican Movement's flawed strategy think of today's ruling?"

"There was always another way, there was always an alternative to murder and mayhem, a democratic pathway always existed.”