McGuinness: I didn't recall meeting with Claudy priest

Martin McGuinness has defended his meeting with Father Chesney, the priest at the centre of the Claudy bombing controversy.

A British government-led inquiry revealed last month that authorites in the North knew that the priest was responsible for the bombings, but did not make an arrest for fear of deepening tensions within the Catholic community.

The Claudy bombings killed nine people when there car bombs exploded without warning in Derry in 1972.

In 2002, Mr McGuinness denied ever meeting the priest, but has now insisted he was not covering up.

Mr McGuinness has said that a meeting with the cleric, which took place when Father Chesney was terminaly ill, was a mere courtesy call which lasted a very short time and that the Claudy

bombings were never mentioned.