Murdered British informant Denis Donaldson was a “victim” of the conflict in Northern Ireland, and was viewed by his security service handlers as “expendable”, Gerry Adams has told the High Court.
The former Sinn Féin leader was giving evidence on the second day of the civil trial hearing into his defamation action against the BBC.
Mr Adams claims a BBC Spotlight programme and related article published in 2016 falsely accused him of sanctioning the 2006 killing of MI5 agent Mr Donaldson.
The BBC denies it defamed Mr Adams.
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The jury was on Wednesday shown the 60-minute Spotlight programme at the centre of Mr Adams’s defamation action. Mr Adams said the programme was an “attempted hatchet job”, and that he was “astonished” at the “poor journalism” involved in the programme when he first viewed it.
In the programme, an anonymous source described as a Sinn Féin and IRA member and a British agent is reported as saying he believes the IRA killed Mr Donaldson.
The source, dubbed “Martin”, is reported as stating that murders must be approved by the political and military leadership of the IRA. Asked by BBC journalist Jennifer O’Leary who he is referring to, the source is reported to say: “Gerry Adams. He gives the final say.”
Mr Adams said his primary concern was that the allegations contradicted “progress that had been made”, a reference to the IRA’s 2005 statement announcing a decommissioning of arms and instruction to volunteers to take up peaceful community and political work.
Mr Adams said he felt the allegations indicated to his own community and the broader “republican family” that they had been “led up the garden path”.
Mr Adams said he was “shocked” to learn of Mr Donaldson’s death, and said he put out a statement deploring the killing and offering sympathies to his family.
He said it was “deeply troubling” that Mr Donaldson’s family are still struggling to get to the truth of his killing.
“Personally, I think Denis Donaldson was a victim of the conflict. I don’t see any other way of describing it,” Mr Adams said.
Mr Adams said he “liked” and “knew” Mr Donaldson, but “didn’t really have any dealings with him”. Mr Donaldson worked for Sinn Féin in a number of roles, the court heard, including as an administrator at Stormont.
Mr Adams said Mr Donaldson – along with others – was arrested and charged in 2002 over claims of a Sinn Féin “spy ring” operating in Stormont. The charges were “complete nonsense” and the charges were dropped, Mr Adams said.
Mr Adams said that after the charges were dropped, Mr Donaldson was revealed to be an agent working for British security services.
Mr Adams said the only people who could have revealed this were the people “using him”, his handlers. Mr Donaldson was “expendable” to his handlers, Mr Adams said.
Mr Adams said he asked Declan Kearney, a senior Sinn Féin official, to “ascertain the truth” of the allegations that Mr Donaldson was a spy.
At a meeting with party officials, Mr Donaldson acknowledged that he had been an agent for 20 years, Mr Adams said. He was dismissed from the party.
Earlier in his evidence, Mr Adams spoke at length about major events during the Troubles. Mr Adams touched on his internment at Long Kesh, his efforts to “revamp” Sinn Féin and move toward electoralism, and “slow climb” to peace and the Belfast Agreement in 1998.
He said he believed the IRA was a “legitimate response” to what had occurred in Northern Ireland. He said not everything the IRA did was legitimate.
Mr Adams became emotional when he spoke about the death of 10 republican hunger strikers in 1981, who were protesting against the conditions at the Maze prison in Co Down. “People my age find it very difficult to talk about this period,” he said. “None of them wanted to die.”
The Belfast Agreement, which brought relative peace to Northern Ireland, was the product of work of a huge number of people, Mr Adams said. “I was one among many who contributed.”
The BBC denies it defamed Mr Adams, and claims the Spotlight programme and publication were put out in good faith and during the course of discussion on a subject of public and vital interest. The BBC says the programme constituted responsible journalism that was the result of careful investigation.
In his opening address to the jury on Tuesday, Tom Hogan SC, for Mr Adams, said the BBC had engaged in “reckless journalism” by publishing the allegations. He said that Mr Adams’s reputation was one of a “peacemaker”, and the publishing of the allegations was an “unjustified attack” on his reputation.
The published allegations relied on a single, anonymous source, Mr Hogan said.
Mr Adams has at all times denied any involvement in Mr Donaldson’s death, for which dissident republicans claimed responsibility in 2009. He claims all allegations connecting him or the IRA to the death are attempts to discredit republicans.
The case continues on Thursday.
