Three victims of IRA bombings who sued former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, alleging he was a member of the paramilitary group and liable for the attacks, have withdrawn their lawsuit on the last day of the civil trial at the High Court.
John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock, injured respectively in the 1973 Old Bailey bombing and the 1996 London Docklands and Manchester bombings, were seeking symbolic damages of £1 each. They claimed Adams was a member of the IRA and sat on its army council, which he denied.
On Friday, the claimants’ lawyer, Anne Studd KC, announced the discontinuation after “proceedings developed overnight”. Adams, who was not in court, welcomed the end of the case, calling it “an emphatic end to a case that should never have been brought”. He reiterated his denial of IRA membership and involvement in bombings.
The claimants’ solicitors, McCue Jury, said they were forced to accept an offer from Adams to “drop hands”, meaning each party bears their own costs, after the judge invited submissions on whether the case constituted an abuse of process, which could have led to the claimants being liable for Adams’s costs. Barry Laycock said he was “completely devastated” but maintained that the evidence showed “Adams’s true self”.
