As Charlie Nicholas might say, I was sitting here thinking and I thought to myself, you never see Rolf Harris and Gerry Adams in the same room.
The similarities appear not to be limited to physical appearance either.
In October 2013 Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams YOUNGER brother Liam Adams, an Sinn Fein official and youth worker, was jailed for 16 years after he was found guilty and convicted of raping and sexually assaulting his daughter, Aine, over a six-year period between 1977 and 1983 when she was aged between four and nine.
The jury of nine men and three women had heard more than two weeks of evidence at Belfast Crown Court. They reached the guilty verdicts with a majority of 11 to one.
During the trial Aine Adams gave graphic details of the abuse, which started when she was aged four.
The first time she recalled being raped was while her mother was in hospital giving birth to her younger brother Conor in 1977.
In another incident she was raped by her father at a flat in North Belfast while her brother slept in the bed beside her. Adams, who was a heavy drinker, also forced Aine to perform sex acts.
Liam Adams was found guilty of 10 offences against his daughter – three counts of rape, four of indecent assault and three of gross indecency.
In a statement read out by a police officer outside the court, Ms Adams said she could finally begin to move on after a long and hard road to achieve justice.
“I do not see this verdict as a victory or a celebration as it has taken its toll and has caused hurt, heartache and anguish for all those involved.
“I can now begin my life at 40 and lay to rest the memory of the fiveyear-old girl who was abused,” she said.
And what an ordeal the Sinn Fein Leader niece Aine has went through.
1977 – Aine Adams, aged four, is indecently assaulted by her father Liam Adams at her home in Westrock Drive, west Belfast.
May 1978 – Aine Adams recalls being raped for the first time while her mother is in hospital giving birth to her younger brother, Conor.
December 1981 – Liam Adams splits from first wife Sarah leaving her with four children – Aine, Liam, Conor and Sinead. It was an unhappy union frequently filled with rows and violence. Sometimes the domestic abuse became so bad Sarah had to flee the family home, in which Aine was abused. The couple shared three different houses across West Belfast but it was an on-off relationship and they were often apart. It was the height of the Troubles and Liam Adams, who according to friends was on the fringes of the IRA, would be absent for days at a time. He was in prison around the time Aine was born. He moved into a bedsit flat on the Antrim Road in North Belfast. He took little interest in his children save for a few access visits during which he sexually abused Aine. Adams was also a heavy drinker. Aine recalled she would always smell alcohol on her father’s breath when he forced himself on her. He found it difficult to put down roots and his transient lifestyle led him to America, Canada, Donegal, Dublin and Dundalk.
June 1983 – Gerry Adams elected as West Belfast MP and becomes president of Sinn Fein.
December 1986 – Aine Adams, aged 13, reveals in a letter to her mother that she was repeatedly raped by her father Liam Adams from the age of four.
January 1987 – Aine Adams and her mother report catalogue of child sex abuse to detectives at Grosvenor Road RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) station. Such was the level of deception Liam Adams was still trusted to work with children for almost 20 years after this report.
In that time Liam Adams was appointed youth worker at Clonard Monastery in West Belfast constituency, where the former MP attended Mass and was good friends with many of the priests – including Fr Alex Reid, who was a mediator between the IRA and British government during the fledgling peace process.
1991 – Aine Adams moves to Scotland.
1997 – Gerry Adams is pictured smiling with his brother during an election canvass in Dundalk, Co Louth. Liam Adams is later expelled from Sinn Fein after his brother Gerry learns of his intention to stand as an election candidate for Co Louth. He continues to carry out work for the party.
December 1999 – While Christmas shopping, Aine Adams tells her younger sister Sinead she was sexually abused as a child.
December 2002 – Liam Adams confesses abuse against Aine when confronted by Sinead, during a meeting in Twinbrook.
January 2006 – Aine Adams returns to Belfast and goes to PSNI to have case re-opened against her father after finding out that he is working with youth groups in West Belfast and Dundalk, Co Louth. During this time Aine repeatedly approached her uncle as she feared for the safety of other children. It has emerged the sick child abuser even went on a trip to a Romania orphanage in his role as a youth worker in West Belfast.
Aine said at the time “I said I was very concerned Liam was seeking jobs working with children. Gerry told me that was Liam’s way of trying to make up to the community for what he’d done to me. I asked, ‘Would you feel comfortable letting your wee granddaughter go somewhere Liam was working?’ “I could see the rage in his eyes when I said that.”
One former community worker, who met Liam Adams during his time at Clonard, would later say “He had a lot of ideas about what to do with the young people. People were impressed by him, I suppose.
“When the allegations emerged it shook the community and the fact that a lot of people had known about it but did nothing was also shocking.
“People are asking questions that if people knew about it, why did they do nothing.”
November 2007 – Liam Adams is arrested by the PSNI and questioned about child sex abuse allegations. He denies all allegations.
Gerry Adams is also interviewed at the time. During a police interview in 2007, the former West Belfast MP didn’t reveal his brother’s rape confession.
Despite his child rapist brother confessing to abusing Aine to the Sinn Fein boss in 2000 the political leader didn’t report the details to police for nine years.
November 2008 – Liam Adams fails to turn up at court in Northern Ireland to face child abuse charges. He fled to the Republic over fears he would not receive a fair trial.
December 2009 – Aine Adams waives her right to anonymity and goes public about the abuse in a television documentary. Gerry Adams urges Liam to hand himself in. Within days of the sex abuse scandal hitting the headlines, Liam Adams flees to the Republic claiming he could not receive a fair trial in Northern Ireland. He handed himself in to police in Co Sligo but could not be detained because the Garda officers did not have the correct documentation.
GERRY Adams hit back at claims he did not do enough following a sex abuse allegation against his on-the-run brother Liam and insisted that he has no intention of stepping down as president of Sinn Fein over accusations he did nothing to deal with sex abuse claims made against his brother Liam.
‘I HANDLED SEX CLAIMS AGAINST MY BROTHER AS BEST AS I COULD’ and ‘I HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG’
This was contradicted by his own neice. Who accused him of lying over his handling of sex abuse allegations.
“Gerry has said that when he found out Liam was in Sinn Fein, he couldn’t tell his colleagues Liam was a suspected paedophile in order to protect my anonymity.
“That’s nonsense. I didn’t know Liam was in Sinn Fein but had Gerry bothered to tell me, I would have waived my right to anonymity without hesitation.”
The political fallout from the shocking allegations has left the Sinn Fein boss being accused of a massive cover-up to protect his suspected paedophile brother.
“In the end I realised it was all about PR and protecting his own image. He would put me on a guilt trip. He was always saying how bad Liam felt, how he was suicidal. Did Gerry not realise I was struggling with depression myself?”
Aine also rubbished Gerry Adams’ claim that a family member accompanied her and her mother to report the sex abuse allegations to social services. She said: “He says that a member of his family accompanied myself and my mother to social service about Liam in 1987. That’s untrue.
“We went to the social services. Gerry says he has documentary evidence to support his claim. We’d like to see that.”
When Aine learnt that her suspected child abuser father was working with youngsters right under his brother’s nose in his own constituency, she demanded the Sinn Fein boss take action.
She added: “Gerry told me that was Liam’s way of trying to make up to the community for what he’d done to me.”
“Since I was raped, I’ve been fighting a losing battle with Gerry Adams, social services and the police.
“I went forward to them and told them what had happened but I keep hitting a brick wall.
“The behaviour of each and every one of them is disgraceful.”
Aine’s uncle Bob Corrigan, a former IRA prisoner who spent 10 years in the Maze Prison, said it was time Gerry Adams quit public life in the wake of the scandal.
He added: “He has failed in his responsibilities as both a public representative and as an uncle and should resign as Sinn Fein president, West Belfast MP and Assembly member. “As a former republican prisoner I don’t say this lightly.”
Aine’s story of Gerry Adams as a manipulative, control freak is echoed by the story that he tried to censor the Great British media and free press from telling the story of his Peado brother.
Aine said at the time “He wanted to obtain a court injunction with my help to stop the story.
“He said he needed to make sure it didn’t get into the press to protect me. It was all about PR and protecting his own image.”
When the story did come out The West Belfast MP accused the newspapers of engaging in “a deliberate smear campaign” against both him and his party over the allegations against his brother.
March 2010 – Liam Adams is arrested at a Dublin police station, under a European arrest warrant which was issued by the Serious Organised Crime Agency.
October 2011 – Liam Adams loses fight against extradition
November 2011 – He was eventually handed over to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) at the border in after losing a lengthy and expensive extradition battle.
April 2013 – First trial against Liam Adams opens at Belfast Crown Court. Jury of six men and six women is sworn in.
April 22, 2013 – Gerry Adams takes the stand as a prosecution witness and denies claims he did not tell the authorities about his brother sooner because he was trying to save his political skin. He told the court he confronted his brother about the claims in Buncrana, Co Donegal, in 1987 but he denied the abuse.He then revealed his brother later confessed while they were out walking together in the rain in Dundalk, Co Louth, in 2000.
April 25, 2013 – Trial collapses because of legal issues and jury is discharged. Judge Corrine Philpott orders that a new trial be held in the autumn.
October 1, 2013 – Jury of nine men and three women take about four hours to return guilty verdicts in all 10 charges with a majority of 11 to one. Liam Adams is remanded in custody.
November 27, 2013 – Liam Adams, 58, from west Belfast, showed no visible sign of remorse as he is jailed for 16 years. shaking his head occasionally during the hearing and then smiling and laughing as he was led from the dock. As well as spending two years on probation at the end of his prison sentence, Adams will be placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely and will be barred from working with children.
Gerry Adams was not in court that day. Instead Ironically he was attending the funeral the priest Alec Reid in west Belfast, Who employed his Peadophile brother Liam as a youth worker.
Nevermind Rolf Harris this shocking ,disgusting horror story about the Adams family is starting resemble the Adams family!
Minus the laughs of course.
In 2009 when the Sinn Fein president was confronted with the allegations by documentary-maker Chris Moore. Gerry Adams suddenly -days later- remembered and told the world that his Father Gerry Adams snr. emotionally, physically and sexually abused family members over many years.
Gerry Adams Snr. was buried as a former republican activist in the 1930s, a former prisoner with full IRA honours and tricolour on his coffin.
UTV’s Chris Moore, at the time, said Adams’ decision to make a statement about his father’s abusive history at the weekend was “convenient”. Mr Moore claimed Gerry Adams should have called on his brother to hand himself in a long time ago.
He said: “Gerry Adams waits until we make a TV programme and Aine speaks out before he calls on his brother to stand up and come forward and face these charges.”
When one time prospective Sinn Fein Co Louth election candidate Liam Adams was outed on national TV as a disgusting Peadophile. He did as so many cowardly IRA murderes did he ran over the border to the Republic for sanctuary. While there Liam Adams signed into his Sligo bed and breakfast using the false name Eamon O’Hara and gave his address as Andersonstown.
This has echoes of the anonymous Sinn Fein member who signed himself in at the elm guest house as the alias Gary Walker. The Elm guest house, in case you don’t know, was a hotel that Pop stars, religious men and politicians frequented in the 1980s and is being investigated for child abuse by police.
The B&B, which Liam Adams hid out in was shockingly just yards from a Garda station.
This Story of child rape and abuse of powers also has similarities with another Dangerous man of the 1980s hiding in plain sight Jimmy Savile. Savile also claimed links to the IRA. With Ironically The People newspaper’s JAMES SAVILLE interviewing him in the year 2000. He recalls the meeting in an updated piece from 2012 as follows.
“JIMMY Savile terrified enemies by snarling that he was mates with IRA killers who would cripple anyone who crossed him.
The cunning paedophile used threats of violence to silence victims and anyone else who threatened to expose him, investigators on his case believe.
He told me: “All I have to do is call my friends in the IRA. They’ll have someone waking up in hospital the next morning eating their breakfast through a f***ing straw.”
I met Jimmy Savile as a 20-year old reporter on the Bucks Herald, covering his charity work at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
He loved the fact we shared the same name, though spelled slightly differently. I’d been reporting on him for about three years when he called me at work and invited me to his private suite at the hospital.
It was the first time I’d been inside the Jimmy Savile Suite.
I found him with his feet up on his leather-topped antique desk, staring out of the window, puffing frantically on his cigar. He was the only person allowed to smoke in the hospital.
Savile was once blessed by the Pope for his charity work in a Catholic institution in Ireland.
Suddenly this much-loved telly character and charity hero was spouting foul-mouthed threats and swearing he could call on IRA hoodlums to do his dirty work.
He was upset about the death of a local figure who he had known for several years.
There was a rumour the man died after being mugged in the street.
The TV bigshot demanded the identity of the thugs responsible.
We have omitted the name of the deceased out of respect for his family. After arrogant Savile summoned me to his office he raged: “I want you to tell me what happened with **** *****.
“If you hear that someone has done this then I want you to tell me who straight away.
“I want to know names and I can have them waking up in hospital with every bone in their body broken. If someone has done this to **** ***** that makes them my enemy. And you don’t want to be my enemy.
“I know the IRA, men from the IRA, and you don’t need to ask these guys twice.
“I’m serious. Don’t f***ing think I’m not serious. I can get them done – just with a phone call. That’s all it takes, young man.” When asked about how he can command the IRA, a raging Savile replied: “You don’t get blessed by the Pope for nothing.”
Our evidence from the meeting in 2000 has been passed to the multi-agency investigation into Savile, now believed to have collected the accounts of 200 victims.
A team of 10 from the Met’s Operation Yewtree are leading the probe, with help from regional police forces, the NSPCC and former detective Mark Williams-Thomas, a child protection expert. Late last week Peter Watt, head of the NSPCC’s helpline, said:
“It is now looking possible that Jimmy Savile was one the most prolific sex offenders our organisation has ever come across.”
The Met’s Cmdr Peter Spindler said: “We are dealing with alleged abuse on an unprecedented scale.”
Officers are ready to arrest Savile’s suspected accomplices.
Convicted paedophile Jonathan King and child abuser Gary Glitter are also likely to be quizzed. Sources close to the investigation believe complaints that have emerged so far are the tip of the iceberg. And others are STILL in fear of their lives despite Savile’s death a year ago aged 84.
Our source said: “He boasted of knowing gangsters and men who you wouldn’t want to double cross.
“It is likely that some had been threatened with the IRA. They are still worried about coming forward. From all of the evidence gathered there is a clear picture developing of someone who not only abused vulnerable children but intimidated them. The feared for their lives.”
Savile hinted about underworld links in 1983 newspaper interview: “I never get physical personally. Let’s just say that while I’m in Edinburgh very dodgy things happen in London.
“I am just waiting for a call from Hollywood offering me the lead in the remake of The Godfather.”
Savile visited Ireland annually between 1968 and 1981 to lead fundraising walks for the Central Remedial Clinic in Dublin.
At the beginning of this tale I said that you never see Rolf Harris and Gerry Adams in the same room.
Well lets hope justice will be finally done and we will be seeing Gerry Adams and Rolf Harris in the same room soon and lets hope its dimensions are 6 foot by 4 foot.