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| Liam Adams convicted of raping and abusing daughter | Liam Adams convicted of raping and abusing daughter |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Liam Adams, a brother of Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams, has been convicted of raping and abusing his daughter. | |
| Adams, 58, from Bernagh Drive, Belfast, was found guilty of ten offences, including rape and gross indecency, against his daughter, Áine Adams. | |
| The abuse was committed over a six-year period between 1977 and 1983, when she was aged between four and nine. | |
| Áine Adams said she could begin her life at 40 and "lay to rest the memory of the five-year-old who was abused". | |
| In a statement, read out by a police officer, she said: "I do not see this verdict as a victory, nor a celebration, as it has taken its toll and has caused hurt, heartache and anguish to all those involved." | |
| Áine Adams had waived her right to anonymity throughout the trial. | |
| Liam Adams consistently denied the charges throughout the two-week trial. | |
| However, a jury of nine men and three women convicted Adams on all charges, with a majority verdict of eleven to one. | |
| Details of the abuse were outlined during the trial including how Áine Adams had been raped while her mother gave birth in hospital to her brother. | |
| Giving evidence in his own defence, Liam Adams said the abuse did not happen. | |
| The court also heard how Gerry Adams had accompanied his niece, Áine, and her mother to Buncrana in County Donegal to confront Liam Adams about the allegations. | |
| She was just 13 but although she made a complaint to the police in 1987, she did not pursue it until 2007 when Liam Adams was arrested. | |
| The allegations were first reported when his daughter took part in a documentary in 2009 for Northern Ireland's independent, commercial television station, UTV. | |
| This was the second trial. The first trial collapsed in April for legal reasons. | |
| Adams handed himself in to police in Dublin in 2010 after a European arrest warrant was issued by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. | |
| He was extradited to Northern Ireland in November 2011 after losing a legal battle to remain in the Republic of Ireland, where he had been living. | |
| Adams said he had feared he would not get a fair trial in the north. |