The IRA was accused tonight of point scoring over the discovery of mother-of-ten Jean McConville’s body.

Jean McConville’s IRA killers shot her in the back of the head before taking her body to a shoreline in the Irish Republic, it emerged tonight.

Preliminary post mortem results have shown the woman whose remains were found in Co Louth died of a single shot from a firearm to the head.

The relatives of a woman murdered by the IRA over 30 years ago were facing the prospect of a long and anxious wait today, after the remains of a woman’s body were found.