Ivor Bell’s conviction for aiding Gerry Adams in jail escape overturned

A veteran republican has had his conviction for assisting Gerry Adams in an attempt to escape from jail overturned.

Judges in Belfast granted 84-year-old Ivor Bell’s appeal against being found guilty of aiding the former Sinn Féin leader in his attempt to break out of the Maze Prison during the 1970s.

The decision was based on a Supreme Court ruling that Mr Adams had been unlawfully detained.

“The appeal is allowed, we will give written reasons (at a later date),” Lord Justice Treacy confirmed.

Mr Adams was interned without trial at the jail — then known as the Long Kesh Internment Camp — under an interim custody order (ICO). But in May last year his historic convictions for trying to escape were quashed.

Supreme Court justices held that the ICO was invalid because it had not been personally authorised by the Northern Ireland secretary at the time, Willie Whitelaw.

Following that determination Mr Bell challenged the legality of the verdict reached against him. Mr Bell, from Ramoan Gardens in west Belfast, received a five-year sentence in 1975 for escaping from lawful custody and assisting in Mr Adams’ escape attempt.