Adams to be extradited on sex charge

LIAM ADAMS has been taken into custody after losing his bid to appeal against the decision to extradite him to the North.

Adams, aged 56, a brother of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, is expected to stand trial on multiple charges of rape and indecent assault against his daughter, Aine Tyrell. He denies the allegations.

Mr Justice John Edwards remanded him in custody for 15 days to a Dublin prison and refused to certify any of the five grounds of appeal. The extradition order will then take effect and he will be handed over to the PSNI.

Mr Justice Edwards said the court had “carefully considered the submissions made to it on both sides”.

“Having considered these submissions and reflected upon them, the court has arrived at the decision it is not disposed to certify any of the points raised as points of law of exceptional public importance,” he said.

He told Adams that while he is being held for 15 days in Cloverhill Prison, he has the right to go to the High Court to challenge the legality of his detention.

In relation to bail bonds, he said that two sureties were to be returned and Adams’s passport is to travel with him.

Adams’s other daughter, Claire Smith, was in court and gave him a hug as he was lead away.

It is claimed the offences occurred at addresses in Belfast between March 1977 and March 1983, when the victim was between four and 10 years old. It is alleged some offences occurred when Ms Tyrell’s mother was out of the family home.

Adams, with a last address at Bernagh Avenue in Belfast, turned himself in to gardaí in Dublin in March 2010 after a European arrest warrant was issued by the PSNI. He denies all charges and contested the request for his surrender.

Adams’s lawyers said his prosecution was “politically motivated” and that he had been treated differently from others accused of criminal offences by members of Sinn Féin and by those in opposing parties seeking to generate “political capital” from his association with Sinn Féin.

They argued that Adams would not receive a fair trial in the North because of pre-trial publicity and comments on the case by his brother, as well as the delay in bringing the charges against him, and legal issues such as the composition of any potential jury to try the case.

They also contended that if Adams were returned to the North it was likely he would be denied bail and would enter the prison service as a protected inmate, locked up for up to 23 hours a day.