Former speaker suing over 'dereliction of duty' claims

Former Northern Ireland Assembly speaker John Alderdice launched a legal action today against newspaper allegations that he vanished to buy a holiday home in France amid a deepening crisis in the peace process.

Claims in the Sunday Tribune that he could not be traced amid frantic efforts to stop the Stormont Parliament collapsing likened him to a captain deserting a sinking ship without warning, the High Court in Belfast heard.