Stormont arrests part of campaign to help Trimble, SF official claims

A SINN FÉIN official who had charges dropped against him over a republican spy ring at Stormont claimed that police arrested him as part of a campaign to save David Trimble’s political career.

Denis Donaldson, who with Ciaran Kearney and William Mackessy had charges dropped at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday, said he was not surprised at the decision to drop the case against them.

“I wasn’t surprised because we weren’t guilty,” said Mr Donaldson, Sinn Féin’s head of administration at Stormont at the time of the arrests in 2002.