Adams brother speaks to police over abuse claims

A brother of Gerry Adams wanted on suspicion of sexually abusing his daughter has handed himself in to police.

Liam Adams presented himself at a Garda station in Co Sligo in the Irish Republic on Monday evening.

The younger brother of the Sinn Fein president is understood to have spoken for a number of hours with senior detectives about his alleged crimes in Northern Ireland before leaving the station.

A Garda source said Mr Adams stayed at a guest house in Sligo on Monday night, but gave no permanent address where he was living.

Under the law, police in the Republic have no power to detain a suspect of a crime in another jurisdiction, unless there is an international arrest warrant.

"We'll act upon any legal request we get, but we haven't got one yet," said a Garda source.

It is understood the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is applying for a European arrest warrant, which could take a number of days to come through.

Detectives in Sligo contacted PSNI officers in Belfast to make them aware of the developments.

Liam Adams, who is in his 50s, is wanted by police north of the border to face 23 charges of abusing his daughter Aine Tyrell in the 1970s and 1980s.

Last week, Gerry Adams urged him to come forward and face the courts.

The high-profile republican also revealed that his father, Gerry senior, abused family members before his death.

The revelations about Liam Adams's alleged crimes emerged on Friday when his daughter, now 36, waived her right to anonymity and went public with her claims in a documentary on Ulster Television.

In a follow-up TV interview for RTE on Sunday, Gerry Adams then disclosed his father's dark past for the first time, claiming Gerry Snr "emotionally, physically and sexually abused" a number of his siblings over many years.

The west Belfast MP also admitted he could have done more to stop his brother working with children in the years after he found out about his niece's allegations.

But the Sinn Fein leader said the police and social services also had questions to answer on how Liam Adams was able to get a job as a youth worker, despite both agencies being aware that Ms Tyrell had made claims that he raped and molested her.

Liam Adams worked in the Clonard Youth Centre in Belfast from 1998 to 2003.

During this period he also worked in the Muirhevnamor Community Youth Project in Dundalk, Co Louth, in the Irish Republic. He was then involved with another youth project in west Belfast from 2004 to 2006.

All three organisations said they were not aware of the claims against him.

He obtained the positions before vetting checks for people working with children in Northern Ireland became compulsory (the law changed in 2005) and it is understood he was not subjected to any such procedure.