BBC’s lawyer says Spotlight allegation ‘thoroughly investigated’

The BBC has opened its defence in a libel case brought by Gerry Adams, who claims he was defamed in a broadcast and article which alleged he sanctioned the murder of a British agent.

Eoin McCullough SC, acting for the broadcaster, told the High Court in Dublin the allegation had been “thoroughly investigated”.

He also stated it would have been “irresponsible” for the information to be ignored.

Mr Adams denies any involvement in the 2006 killing of Denis Donaldson – who for 20 years was a spy for the police and MI5 inside Sinn Féin.

Mr Donaldson was once a key figure in Sinn Féin’s rise as a political force in Northern Ireland but he was found murdered in 2006 after it emerged he had been a spy.

He was interned without trial for periods in the 1970s.

After the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Féin appointed Mr Donaldson as its key administrator in the party’s Stormont offices.

In 2005, Mr Donaldson confessed he was a spy for British intelligence for two decades, before disappearing from Belfast.

He was found dead in a small, run down cottage in Glenties, County Donegal.

Mr Adams was the president of republican party Sinn Féin from 1983 until 2018.

He served as MP in his native Belfast West from 1983 to 1992 and again from 1997 until 2011 before sitting as a TD (Teachta Dála) in the Dáil (Irish parliament) between 2011 and 2020.

Mr Adams led the Sinn Féin delegation during peace talks that eventually brought an end to the Troubles after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

He was detained in the early 1970s when the government in Northern Ireland introduced internment without trial for those suspected of paramilitary involvement.

Mr Adams has consistently denied being a member of the IRA.