Offensive Over Adams Family Sex Abuse

The Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has insisted that he did not know his alleged child abuser brother Liam was still working for the party in his west Belfast constituency - even after he had ordered his removal from membership.

Mr Adams, (pictured) is now facing calls to explain how - in 2000 - Liam Adams chaired a local branch of Sinn Féin in west Belfast, even though Gerry Adams said he had his brother thrown out of the party in 1997 after Liam's daughter Aine had told him that her father had sexually abused her since she was four.

Gerry is now facing mounting questions over how Liam was able to enjoy an extensive career in youth work and Sinn Féin - both in Belfast and Dundalk - after the party leader had become convinced his brother was a child sex abuser, in 1987.

On news that Liam Adams became re-involved with the party in Andersonstown - Gerry Adams's west Belfast constituency - three years after the Sinn Féin leader said his brother had been expelled, he commented: "I am also a very busy activist - a lot of this happened at a time of intense hyper-activity - but I didn't know."

Ian Paisley Jr has asked a Stormont Assembly committee to investigate if Gerry Adams breached its code of conduct by failing to properly report what he believed about his brother to the authorities.

The PSNI are also currently arranging a European arrest warrant to have Liam extradited from the Republic of Ireland to face charges dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.

(BMcC/GK)