Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was sensationally arrested last night over the murder of a widowed mother of ten who was abducted from her home during the Troubles more than 40 years ago.
The 65-year-old, who for decades has dodged difficult questions about his alleged terrorist past, was detained by detectives investigating the murder of Jean McConville - abducted and killed by the Provisional IRA in 1972 and later buried on a beach in the Republic of Ireland.
She is one of Northern Ireland's Disappeared - those who were abducted, murdered and secretly buried by republicans during the Troubles.
Witnesses to her abduction claimed she had gone to the aid of a wounded British soldier, shot by the IRA.
His arrest – confirmed by police and Sinn Fein – could jeopardise peace in Ulster, with hardline Republicans said to be already plotting major atrocities.
Adams has always denied any involvement in the murder of Mrs McConville but speculation was mounting last night that prosecutors were considering charging him in connection with her death.
In a statement last night, Adams again rejected what he called the 'malicious allegations' that he was responsible for her murder.
'While I have never disassociated myself from the IRA and I never will, I am innocent of any part in the abduction, killing or burial of Mrs McConville,' he added.
Adams was first interned in 1972 – the year Mrs McConville was murdered - for being an alleged member of the IRA. He was again interned in 1973 at Long Kesh, and later, in 1976.
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| The scene outside Antrim PSNI holding centre this evening where Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams is being questioned by officers investigating the 1972 murder of west Belfast woman Jean McConville |
They were contained in tapes stored at Boston College in the US, and documented the worst of the nearly 30 years of Ulster Troubles.
The American college had been archiving the interviews, agreeing not to make their contents public until each interviewee had died.
But the FBI, on behalf of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), last year applied to US courts to have the tapes handed over.
In a series of interviews, conducted at her home in Malahide, Dublin, Price readily admitted she had been the person 'ordered' to drive Mrs McConville to meet her fateful end.
Price was part of a small, select unit of IRA members within the three battalions that made up the Belfast Brigade in the 1970s.
The group of eight hand-picked volunteers were nicknamed 'the Unknowns' and responsible for 'special operations', including internal investigations to weed out suspected informers. Their methods were often brutal.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams (centre) chats with colleague Eoin O Broin during the Sinn Fein commemoration to mark the 98th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin
Credit: Dailymail
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