Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has admitted that he deeply regrets how the IRA dealt with rapists.
Mr Adams made his comments last night in the wake of abuse allegations by Maria Cahill. Ms Cahill first made her allegations known to public back in 1997 after she claimed she had been raped when she was only 16 by a leading Republican. Ms Cahill claims that Mr Adams knew all about her ordeal after he had met with her, but he failed to report the assault to the authorities.
Ms Cahill also claims that IRA members had conducted their own version of an investigation into the alleged assualt, she said that during the investigation the IRA brought her face to face with her alleged attacker. However Mr Adams has once again denied Ms Cahill’s allegations against himself and his party, although he did admitt that the IRA had ‘made mistakes’ in its efforts to fill what he called ‘a policing vaccum’ in Northern Ireland.
The Sinn Féin leader also admited that IRA personnel were ‘singularly ill-equipped’ to handle such matters which included child abuse and rape victims, he said ‘victims were left without social service support and abusers without supervision’.
Mr Adams strongly denies that there was any cover up and he is insisting that he told Ms Cahill’s family to advise her to go to the RUC.
He also claims that when Ms Cahill finally decided to go to the police, he said he fully co-operated with the investigation.
Mr Adams concluded his interview by saying that anyone who has any information whatsoever about any child abuse should come forward to the authorities North or South of the border and they will have the full support of Sinn Féin in so doing.