BBC did not mention Adams allegation, Donaldson family’s former solicitor says

Gerry Adams was not mentioned in interactions between the solicitor representing the family of a man who was killed and a BBC team making a documentary on the matter, a libel trial relating to the programme has heard.

Mr Adams is suing the BBC over accusations contained in a broadcast of the Spotlight documentary series and an accompanying online article which alleged he had sanctioned the killing of Denis Donaldson.

Mr Donaldson was shot dead in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent for 20 years.

In 2009 the Real IRA admitted killing Mr Donaldson, and the Spotlight programme was broadcast in September 2016.

At the High Court in Dublin on Thursday, Mr Adams’ barrister Tom Hogan brought the family’s solicitor from the time of the programme as a witness.

Ciaran Shiels, a solicitor and partner at Madden and Finucane Solicitors, told the court that the BBC was not only “barking up the wrong tree” but was in the “wrong orchard” over the claims against Mr Adams.

Mr Shiels said he represented Mr Donaldson and his family from a period before his death until a period after the broadcast.

He said he came to act as a spokesperson for the family after Mr Donaldson’s death but said he no longer does so.

Mr Shiels, who works mainly in criminal defence work, told the jury about his interactions with the BBC team in the months up to the broadcast – including journalist Jennifer O’Leary.

He said he did not represent Mr Adams and said his concern was about the relatives of Mr Donaldson.

Asked if there was any mention of Mr Adams in any of his interactions with the BBC, Mr Shiels said: “I don’t think his name was even suggested.

“Nowhere, and I would have remembered if it had.”

Asked by Mr Hogan what he would have said to Ms O’Leary if she had put forward the allegations against Mr Adams, Mr Shiels said: “I would have said to her that not only was she barking up the wrong tree, she wasn’t even in the right orchard.”

He said the idea that Mr Adams somehow authorised the murder or that it was the Provisional IRA that carried it out “did not marry” in any way with the lines of inquiry being followed by police, the understanding of the family, or “common sense”.

Mr Shiels said it was a “pretty perverse statement and depiction as to what happened”.

He added that the family did not accept or believe in any way that Mr Adams had anything to do with it.

Mr Shiels added: “Mr Adams was seen as a family friend, he was trusted by the family, the family would have felt that he had integrity, the family would be streetwise enough to know that the persons who the guards had identified as people who would be – they believed to be involved in the murder would have no truck with Mr Adams and Mr Adams would have no truck with them.”

Earlier in the proceedings, Mr Shiels said he had been contacted by Ms O’Leary from the BBC on April 4 2016 – the 10th anniversary of Mr Donaldson’s death.

He said they wanted to speak to him about a number of issues, including the ‘Stormontgate’ affair which involved an allegation that Sinn Fein was operating a spy ring in which Mr Donaldson was arrested, how that resulted in the collapse of powersharing institutions, and the circumstances under which he had outed himself as an informant.

Mr Shiels said he was also “concerned” after being asked if he knew why Mr Donaldson had become a British agent and there were discussions about indiscretion in his private life – that there may have been an affair or that he may have been a homosexual.

He said the family had a right to privacy and that there had been a previous “quite sensationalist and gory” documentary which featured a reconstruction of the murder that “hurt the family”.

Mr Shiels said that Mr Donaldson’s location had been front page news in a newspaper three weeks prior to his killing, and added that the family were “concerned about further irresponsible journalism taking place”.

He said: “People were still grieving, people were still trying to get on with their lives.

“It was very difficult to see what possible good could come from this.”

Mr Shiels added: “Previously when this subject was looked at in the media, this ended in disaster.”

At the same time, he said the family were demoralised that an inquest into Mr Donaldson’s death was not commencing substantively.

Under questioning from Mr Hogan, Mr Shiels outlined a series of correspondence and interactions between him and the BBC about the upcoming programme.

He said it was made clear that the family did not want to take part in the documentary but it was put forward that he would be interviewed on their behalf.

He said at some point relationships between the BBC and the family “went south”.

Mr Shiels said the family had five years prior put out a press statement outlining frustrations that Irish police, An Garda Siochana, were primarily focused on who had pulled the trigger to kill Mr Donaldson rather than the circumstances around him being “burned as an agent”.

He said this involved him being notified there was a threat to his life, and interactions with his handler known as “Lenny”.

Mr Shiels said the family were “credulous” that gardai could not see a linkage between the two and that that was where the inquiry should be starting.