Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams is unlikely to be prosecuted for withholding information from police investigating the rape and sexual abuse of his niece, legal experts have said.
Attorney General John Larkin is currently reviewing the original decision by the Public Prosecution Service not to charge Mr Adams which met with widespread criticism.
However, legal sources believe the Sinn Féin president will avoid prosecution again on the grounds of a legal technicality.
His brother Liam Adams (58) was last week convicted of 10 counts of raping and sexually abusing his daughter Aine Dahlstrom from1977 to 1983 when she was four years old until she was nine. He will be sentenced by Belfast Crown Court next month.
Gerry Adams has said his brother confessed to him during a walk in Dundalk in 2000 that he'd abused Aine. The Sinn Féin president didn't report this admission of guilt to police for nine years leading to calls for him to be prosecuted for withholding information.
But legal experts believe Mr Adams may escape prosecution because of the exact nature of the crime he has said Liam confessed to him.
Both Aine and her mother Sally Campbell have stated that from 1987 – before they all visited Buncrana to confront his brother – Mr Adams knew the precise detail of the allegations against Liam including how he had raped Aine.
The Sinn Féin president denied this and said he didn't hear of the rape allegations for 20 years. He told Belfast Crown Court at his brother's first trial in April that Liam had confessed in 2000 that he "sexually assaulted, molested" Aine and had said it "only happened once". He did not say that Liam ever confessed to raping Aine.
The Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 states that it is an offence for a person to withhold information about a crime. But the crime involved must be an arrestable offence carrying a sentence of five or more years' imprisonment.
This is further clarified by the Police and Criminal Evidence Order 2007. When Liam Adams abused Aine between 1977 and 1983, rape carried a sentence of over five years and so a person withholding information about it would be open to prosecution.
However, sexual assault carried a sentence of two years' imprisonment during the period that Aine was abused, legal experts have said.
It was therefore not an arrestable offence meeting the five year tariff as set out by law. So someone admitting they didn't tell police about sexual assault – as opposed to rape – is unlikely to be prosecuted for withholding information.
The Sinn Féin president again insisted last night that he had done nothing wrong.
Speaking in Dundalk, Mr Adams said: "For my part, I have committed no offence. I co-operated fully with the PSNI. I made statements in support of Aine."
