A former Army colonel who served as an intelligence officer during the Troubles has told the High Court that Gerry Adams was part of an IRA Army Council which authorised car bomb attacks on the British mainland.
Richard Kemp, who served almost 30 years in the British Army and took part in seven tours of Northern Ireland between 1979 and 2001, said he had come to the ‘unequivocal conclusion’ that Adams was a ‘central figure’ within the Provisional IRA.
He said this was based on intelligence reports compiled by the Army, MI5 and Northern Ireland’s Royal Ulster Constabulary [RUC] police force.
Adams, 77, is being sued ‘vindicatory damages’ of £1 by three survivors of IRA bombings in England between 1973 and 1996.
The claimants allege that owing to his leading role in the IRA, he was ‘directly responsible’ for terror attacks on the British mainland during the Troubles.
Mr Adams, the former president of Sinn Fein, has always denied being a member of the IRA.
A number of witnesses are being called by the claimants in an attempt to prove that Adams was in fact a senior member of the IRA at the time of the bombings.
The civil trial has already heard that he was described by an RUC Special Branch intelligence officer as the terror group’s ‘de facto leader.’
Gerry Adams outside London’s Royal Courts of Justice on the third day of a civil trial where claimants allege he was a senior member of the IRA behind at least three bombings
Retired British Army officer Colonel Richard Kemp said that he was ‘privy to intelligence’ which suggested Mr Adams was an IRA leader
In a written witness statement, Mr Kemp said that, during his tours in Northern Ireland, ‘I was privy to a multitude of intelligence that made it clear Adams was one of the most prominent PIRA [Provisional IRA] figures.’
He added: ‘We were provided with photographs of him by military intelligence and ordered by our commanders that if we encountered him on the street, we were to question him on his activities, and if instructed, arrest him for further questioning.
‘Adams’ origins I understand to have been in the Belfast Brigade, but from the intelligence I saw he had worked his way to leadership of the brigade and other more senior roles.’
He continued: ‘It was my understanding that Adams was on the Army Council of the PIRA early in the Troubles, though I do not know the exact dates, and remained so even after the peace process in the late 1990s.’
Adams is being sued by John Clark, a victim of the IRA’s Old Bailey attack in 1973; Jonathan Ganesh, who was injured in the 1996 attack at London’s Docklands and Barry Laycock, who was injured in the attack at Manchester’s Arndale Shopping Centre in the same year.
In relation to those bombings, Mr Kemp said ‘they would have all required sign off from the Army Council.’
‘This very high-profile activity simply could not have been carried out without the Council’s knowledge and approval,’ he said.
The court had earlier been told that Adams (right) must have been an IRA member after he wore a black beret at an IRA funeral in 1971
‘It is inconceivable, in my view, and based on my knowledge of the PIRA and the intelligence I had access to, that Adams would not have been involved in this process and its ultimate authorisation.’
In his statement, Mr Kemp, 65, who joined the Army in 1977 and left in 2006, also claimed that Adams was named in intelligence files as being responsible for a series of bombings in Belfast in 1972 known as ‘Bloody Friday.’
At least 20 bombs exploded and nine people were killed and 130 injured. No-one has ever been convicted over the bombings. The IRA later apologised for the attacks.
In his statement, Mr Kemp said: ‘Adams was also named in that intelligence as being responsible, in that he gave the orders for, the Bloody Friday massacre in 1972.
‘We had this corroborated from multiple sources at various grades.’
Earlier, the court heard from former IRA explosives expert Shane O’Doherty who claimed there was a ‘risk’ in giving evidence ‘against an IRA leader’ as a witness in a previous libel case had been murdered.
He noted that Eamonn Collins, a former IRA volunteer-turned-author who gave evidence in a libel trial against an IRA commander in 1998 was murdered just months later.
Mr O’Doherty said Adams would not have been able to meet with senior IRA leaders ‘unless at the very least he had the first level of security which is to swear the oath of allegiance [to the IRA]’.
‘Unless you have done that you can’t be trusted,’ he added.
Mr O’Doherty, who spent almost 15 years in prison for planting IRA letter bombs in London, conceded that, until this week’s court case, he had never met or seen Adams.
Adams contends that any meetings with other IRA figures or the British government were part of his role at Sinn Fein.
He denies any role in the bombings or membership of the IRA.
The trial continues.
