Gerry Adams awarded €100,000 in damages after winning defamation case against BBC
High Court Reporters
The BBC defamed Gerry Adams by publishing a claim that he sanctioned the murder of a British agent, a High Court jury has found, awarding the former Sinn Féin leader €100,000.
Mr Adams had claimed that the 2016 Spotlight programme and related article defamed him by falsely accusing him of giving “the final say” in the Provisional IRA’s murder of MI5 informant Denis Donaldson at a cottage in Glenties, Co Donegal in 2006.
Mr Adams described the allegation during the trial as a “grievous smear”.
The BBC had denied defaming Mr Adams.
The jury agreed, as Mr Adams pleaded, that words published in the programme and article were understood to mean he sanctioned and approved the murder. The broadcaster argued the claim against Mr Adams was couched as an allegation.
The jury rejected the BBC’s defence in the case – the broadcaster had argued the publication of the allegation was fair and reasonable, and in the public interest.
The jury decided Mr Adams should be awarded €100,000 to vindicate and restore his reputation following the defamation.
The verdict came on Friday, the 21st day of the case, which opened on April 29th. They spent about seven hours deliberating.
Gerry Adams wearing a navy suit sat at the back of the court as the verdict came in after the jury had deliberated for a total of six and a half hours.
He immediately went on his phone once the verdict was in and also accepted congratulations from well-wishers.
Outside the Four Courts, Mr Adams in Irish, thanked the judge, the court and his family, and said he was very satisfied with the verdict.
He said he was mindful of the Donaldson family in the course of the long trial and “or tell me if and indeed all of the victims families “who have had to watch all of this”.
He called on the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, to meet the family of Denis Donaldson as quickly as possible. He said there was an onus on both governments and everyone else “to try and deal with these legacy issues as best as we can.”
Mr Adams said, from his perspective, taking the action was “about putting manners on the BBC”.
“The BBC upholds the ethos of the British State in Ireland and in my view it is out of sync on many fronts with the Good Friday Agreement. It has not caught on to where we are on this island as part of the continuing process of building peace and justice and harmony, and hopefully in the time ahead, unity.”
He said he was mindful the BBC licence fee payers would pay for this case.
“The BBC and Spotlight are not using their own money. It is the licence payers. This could have been sorted out a long time ago,” he added.
Asked about his reputation, Mr Adams said: "I have always been satisfied with my reputation. The jury made the decision: let's accept the outcome and what the jury said."
Mr Adams solicitor, Paul Tweed in a statement said the case should have been resolved some considerable time ago, "thereby avoiding these very significant financial consequences".
He said it "begs the question as to whether there has been any political or other outside pressure on the BBC to take the stand they had taken.”
"Our client is relieved and satisfied that these legal proceedings have concluded overwhelmingly in his favour after arduous years of litigation," Mr Tweed said.
Mr Tweed said the fact the false allegation had been left online for almost nine years has, he said, "done much to undermine the high standards of accuracy that is expected of the BBC."
