O’Malley denies wrongdoing

The former Progressive Democrat leader Des O’Malley is responding in depth to allegations about his involvement in the tampering of evidence in the 1970 arms trial.

In a long and detailed statement Deputy O’Malley says there are perfectly legitimate reasons why documents were changed.

The former Minister for Justice says he has spent the last few weeks gathering information about his role in the affair following recent media claims.

He says the vast majority of the changes made were to comply with the rules of evidence, for example all hearsay was excluded.

Mr O’Malley is also rejecting claims that the late Jim Gibbons committed perjury, saying he could not imagine anyone least likely to commit such an act.