Jury sworn in for Gerry Adams’ defamation case against BBC

A jury has been sworn in for a defamation case brought by former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams against the BBC.

Beginning proceedings at Dublin High Court on Tuesday, Mr Justice Alexander Owens said the trial is likely to last four weeks.

Claims were made in a BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight programme in 2016 over who sanctioned the killing of British spy Denis Donaldson.

Mr Donaldson, 55, was shot dead at a cottage near Glenties in Co Donegal in April 2006 after being exposed as a British spy while in the IRA.

Mr Adams has denied the allegation that he had any involvement in ordering the murder.

Speaking to the media as he arrived at court, Mr Adams said he was seeking to see the “record corrected”.

He said if he was offered compensation he would donate it to good causes.

Wearing a dark suit and a red tie, Mr Adams sat at the back of the court as the judge made his opening remarks.

The judge told the jury that they would hear evidence that the BBC programme had included a claim from an “unnamed informer” that Mr Adams would have been consulted about IRA murders.

He told them they would have to decide if the words broadcast by the BBC had a fair and reasonable meaning.

A number of senior BBC NI representatives, including Northern Ireland director Adam Smyth arrived at the court shortly before the hearing began.

Mr Adams, 76, stepped down as Sinn Fein president in 2018 after 34 years at the helm.

He served as an MP for west Belfast and represented Co Louth in the Irish parliament for nine years until the 2020 general election, when he retired from politics.