NORTHERN IRELAND

1 May 2014

Gerry Adams Arrest: Sinn Fein Leader Remains In Custody

Irish Republican leader Gerry Adams remains under arrest.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams is still being questioned by Northern Ireland police in connection with the 1972 murder of Jean McConville.

Mr Adams has been spending a second night in custody after presenting himself at Antrim police station on Wednesday evening.

He has denied involvement in the death of the mother-of-10.

Meanwhile, Mrs McConville's daughter, Helen McKendry, has said she is "ready to name names".

In an interview with the BBC's Newsnight programme she said: "I do not fear the IRA anymore. I will happily give the names that I know to the police."

Asked if she feared for her life by divulging such information, she said: "No, what are they going to do to me? They've done so much to me already in the past 42 years, what are they going to do? Come and put a bullet in my head? Well, they know where I live."

Prime Minister David Cameron spoke to Northern Ireland's first and deputy first ministers about the arrest on Thursday evening.

It is understood Mr Cameron reiterated his view that there was no political interference and it was a matter for the police.

Sinn Fein has claimed the arrest was deliberately timed ahead of elections in three weeks' time. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said it showed no-one was above the law.

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, said on Thursday he had pressed Mr Cameron on killings related to the state.

"The Police Service of Northern Ireland is duty bound to fully and energetically pursue every investigation and I support and encourage them to do so," he said.

"But I know that some investigations are pursued more vigorously than others."

First Minister Peter Robinson said the arrest "strengthens our political process in Northern Ireland for people to know that no-one is above the law".

"I would suggest to you that it would be political policing if the PSNI had not questioned those that were deemed to have been involved in any way," the DUP leader said.

Mrs McConville, a 37-year-old widow and mother-of-10, was abducted and shot by the IRA.

Her body was recovered from a beach in County Louth in 2003.

Mrs McConville, one of Northern Ireland's Disappeared, was kidnapped in front of her children after being wrongly accused of being an informer.

The claim that she was an informer was dismissed after an official investigation by the Northern
Ireland Police Ombudsman.

The widow was held at one or more houses before being shot and buried in secret.

The Disappeared are those who were abducted, murdered and secretly buried by republicans during the Troubles.

The IRA admitted in 1999 that it murdered and buried at secret locations nine of the Disappeared.

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains was established in 1999 by a treaty between the British and Irish governments.

It lists 16 people as "disappeared". Despite extensive searches, the remains of seven of them have not been found.

Jean McConville's remains were found in 2003 by a man walking at Shelling Hill beach, near Carlingford.

Last month, Ivor Bell, 77, a leader in the Provisional IRA in the 1970s, was charged with aiding and abetting the murder.

There have also been a number of other arrests over the murder recently.