Adams denies republican involvement in killing

Gerry Adams has hit out at the killers of Belfast man Robert McCartney amid accusations that republicans were hindering police efforts to find the perpetrators behind the murder.

Commenting on the killing, which occurred following a bar fight in Belfast city centre on January 30, the Sinn Fein President said he supported the McCartney family in their quest for “truth and justice”.

“There are allegations that Robert McCartney was killed by republicans,” the West Belfast MP said. “I want to make it absolutely clear that no one involved acted as a republican or on behalf of republicans.

“I repudiate this brutal killing in the strongest terms possible. No one has any right, as has been claimed, to prevent anyone from helping the McCartney family.”

Mr Adams said that if anyone had reservations about assisting the PSNI in their investigation they “should give any information they might have either to the family, a solicitor or any other authoritative or reputable person or body”.

Speaking on BBC's Radio Ulster Talkback programme, Mr McCartney’s sister Paula said she believed republicans had been putting pressure on witnesses not to talk.

"Their cover-up and their clean-up operation afterwards was meticulous," she said. It's just getting more evidence and getting more people to come forward and be brave and hand these people over.”

Police have yet to find a murder weapon during their hunt despite numerous lines of inquiry being followed by detectives investigating the murder.

(MB/SP)