Bafflement at Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly’s denial of prison shooting after neither confirming it nor denying it during three-and-a-half years of libel action

The DUP's Carla Lockhart said the timing of the denial is "strange to say the least," given the Sinn Fein MLA's refusal to deny it on multiple previous occasions, including in his own memoirs.

The denial was issued to the BBC and broadcast on The View late on Thursday night.

Mr Kelly's statement read as follows: "My involvement as a combatant in the conflict has long been a matter of public record.

"I've also worked for more than 30 years to build and consolidate the peace process, been involved in most of the key negotiations with the governments and political parties and been elected by the people of North Belfast to public office for the last 28 years.

"For the record, I did not shoot a prison officer during the 1983 mass escape of political prisoners from the H-blocks of Long Kesh."

However during his three-and-a-half-year long libel case against journalist Malachi O'Doherty he had made no such denial to the court.

In a ruling on Monday which comprehensively rubbished both Mr Kelly's legal case and his reputation, Master Bell noted that Mr Kelly had "failed to file an affidavit denying that he shot Mr Adams and instead relies upon 'a neither confirm nor deny approach' in respect of the incident".

The whole saga ultimately dates back to 1973 when Mr Kelly was part of an IRA team which planted bombs across London, including one at the Old Bailey, causing many injuries and earning Mr Kelly two life sentences.

He then escaped from the Maze in 1983 – an escape which saw multiple guards stabbed and one man, John Adams, shot.

As noted in the judge’s findings this week, Mr Adams himself identified Mr Kelly as the gunman, and the official government report into the breakout found that Mr Kelly shot John Adams.

Mr Kelly could have sued, but didn't.

Mr Kelly was later recaptured in Holland alongside a haul of munitions, brought back and tried over the shooting in 1988, and acquitted.

Even though the judge in his 1988 case – Lord Lowry – acknowledged that the evidence showed that Kelly "may well be" the gunman, he said it could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt so he had to be freed.

But in the years since this acquittal Mr Kelly has cultivated an air of ambiguity over whether he truly fired the shots or not.

A 2008 documentary by the BBC contained an interview with Mr Kelly, in which recalls that during the jailbreak he shouted “don’t f***ing move, get on the ground, this is an IRA operation – if you move, I’ll shoot”.

Mr Kelly says he also warned the guard that his “life depends” on doing what he is told, before the narrator cuts in with the words: “Kelly fired two shots, one of which hit Adams above the eye.”

The judgement this week adds that this did not lead to any legal action from Mr Kelly.

Then in a live panel discussion on the BBC in 2010, TUV leader Jim Allister stated three times that Gerry Kelly had shot the prison guard, again prompting no denials from Mr Kelly.

In an interview with David McKittrick in The Irish Independent in 2013, Mr Kelly was likewise coy about who did the shooting.

“There were two shots fired," he was reported as saying. "There was myself and others there, so clearly it was a prisoner who shot him. But that is as far as I will go.”

And having read Mr Kelly's own account of the shooting in his book The Escape, this week the judge said that "at one point, moments before the shooting of John Adams, Mr Kelly had either a gun, or the gun from which the bullet was fired, in his hand".

DUP MP Carla Lockhart has said: “The timing of Gerry Kelly’s statement is strange to say the least.

"But ultimately this is a man who had no bother planting a massive bomb at the Old Bailey which could have ripped men, women and children to shreds had the police not been able to evacuate the area in minutes.

"Sneaking around London and leaving a car packed with explosives was the actions of a cowardly terrorist.

"Lawfare by numerous republicans is designed to rewrite history and discourage publishers from reminding this generation about the atrocities of the IRA.

"History will not be rewritten.”

She was not alone in being confused about Mr Kelly's denial.

When the 2010 clip of Jim Allister accusing Mr Kelly was played on the BBC's The View show on Thursday night, guest Freya McClements, the northern editor of the Irish Times, said: "The interesting question is: why has he waited til now to distance himself from this?

"He has had many opportunities to do so prior to now, and he hasn't done so."

Sinn Fein was asked if Mr Kelly could explain his change of tack, but no response had been received at time of writing.