Liam Adams jailed for raping daughter
Brother of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams sentenced to 16 years for sexual offences in 1970s and 80s
Liam Adams, the brother of the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, been sentenced to 16 years in prison for raping his daughter.
The former Sinn Féin activist, who is 58, was sentenced on Wednesday after being found guilty last month of the rape and sexual assault of his daughter Aine.
The offences against his daughter, who has waived her right to anonymity and is now called Aine Dahlstrom, took place during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The guilty verdict, and now the heavy sentence – which also includes two years on probation upon release – will increase the pressure on Gerry Adams to explain why he did not go to the authorities when he first learned about the abuse in the 1980s.
During Liam Adams’s first trial earlier this year, which later collapsed, the Sinn Féin president told a Belfast court that he first heard about the sexual abuse allegations in 1987, while it was 13 years later when his younger brother admitted his guilt to him.
The former West Belfast MP has come under sustained criticism as to why he never alerted the police about the claims about his brother. Adams has countered by claiming his political rivals have used a family tragedy to score points against him.
Liam Adams, from west Belfast, was found guilty of 10 offences against his daughter. The abuse was committed over a six-year period between 1977 and 1983, when she was aged between four and nine. He was sentenced at Belfast crown court.
At a previous pre-sentence hearing, the prosecution urged the judge, Corinne Philpott, to send him to jail for at least 15 years.
Meanwhile, the Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland is carrying out an investigation into whether the police carried out a proper investigation into Dahlstrom’s allegations. Northern Ireland’s attorney general, John Larkin, is also investigating the role of prosecutors in the case.
