Adams tells court he ‘liked but did not have many dealings’ with British spy Denis Donaldson

Gerry Adams says he believes Denis Donaldson was a ‘victim of the conflict’ and that he was ‘shocked’ to be told of his death.

During the second day of the defamation case against the BBC at Dublin High Court, he told a court he ‘liked’ former IRA member turned British spy Denis Donaldson and knew his family.The hearing revolves around a BBC Spotlight documentary aired in 2016 and a subsequent online article which both contained an anonymous source alleging that the former Sinn Féin president sanctioned Denis Donaldson’s killing.

He was found dead in a rural Co Donegal cottage in 2006, the year after he confessed to working as a British agent.The court previously heard that he confessed to senior Sinn Féin officials about his role working for security intelligence.

Gerry Adams told the court: “Denis (Donaldson) became an administrator at Sinn Féin in Stormont. I liked the guy and I knew him, I knew his wife and his daughter but I didn’t actually have any dealings with him even though our relationship was a good relationship.”

Mr Adams also told the court that he was working at a ‘different level’ to Mr Donaldson in the early 2000s.

In 2002, Sinn Féin offices at Stormont were raided concerning spying allegations. However it was in 2005 when Mr Donaldson’s confession came to light.

A jury will decide if Mr Adams’ reputation has been damaged with the hearing set to last around four weeks.

During Wednesday’s evidence, Mr Adams also recounted the years leading up to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement which he is recognised as being a key negotiator in.

Opening the case on Tuesday, barrister for Mr Adams Tom Hogan SC said the reputation of Mr Adams as a “peacemaker” suffered an “unjustified” attack due to the broadcast of the BBC programme.

At the end of the day, Mr Adams entered the witness box and described his early political awakenings in Belfast in the 1960s.

Continuing his evidence on Wednesday, Mr Adams told the court he first met Mr Donaldson in H-11 in Long Kesh.

He said Mr Donaldson was not an internee and was a sentenced prisoner who “had been there a long time”.

He told the court he was not sure what Mr Donaldson did after his release, but believed he did some “international work” before becoming an administrator for Sinn Féin’s Stormont team.

He said that in 2002, a convoy of RUC Land Rovers arrived at Stormont, raided the Sinn Féin office and arrested Mr Donaldson and others.

The arrests were made in relation to a claim of a republican spy-ring at Stormont, which Mr Adams said was “complete nonsense”.

After IRA de-commissioning took place in the summer of 2005, he said Mr Donaldson and others who had been arrested had the charges against them dropped in November.

“But quite quickly after the charges were dropped it was revealed that he was an agent.”

Mr Adams told the court: “Denis Donaldson got a visit from the PSNI and he was given a piece of paper that alerted him to the fact that he was going to be named as an agent.

“The only people who could have revealed that were the people who were using him, his handlers, so the special branch who he was acting as an agent for.”

Mr Adams said Mr Donaldson told Declan Kearney of Sinn Féin, who then informed Mr Adams. Mr Adams asked Mr Kearney to get in touch with Mr Donaldson and “ascertain the truth of this”.

He was interviewed by two senior members of the party, where Mr Donaldson acknowledged that the was an informer and he was dismissed, the court heard.

“Denis acknowledged that he had been an agent and he had been an agent for 20 years,” Mr Adams said.

He said he was not in touch with Mr Donaldson after he left the party and said he was “shocked” when he received a phone call from the British secretary of state in April 2006 to say that Mr Donaldson had been found dead.

By the time he got in touch with Mr Donaldson’s family, it had been made public that Mr Donaldson had been killed.

“Personally I think that Denis Donaldson was a victim of the conflict,” he told the court. “I don’t see any other way of describing it.”

Mr Donaldson’s family members observed proceedings via a videolink.

The case continues.

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