Gerry Adams at centre of Sinn Fein child abuse row

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams is at the centre of a storm about sex abuse following the publication in the Irish newspaper the Sunday Tribune of claims by two women that they were raped and abused as children by senior republicans and that the leadership of the IRA and Sinn Fein have ignored their pleas for justice.

Both women are connected to senior republican families in Belfast: one of them is a relative of the legendary IRA chief-of-staff Joe Cahill, and the other is the daughter of a now deceased IRA commander.

Cahill's relative has asked for her first name not to be published. The second woman remains anonymous.

Both women claim Gerry Adams and other senior republican figures knew about the abuse and did nothing to ensure their attackers were held to account.

Sinn Fein has angrily denied that it does not take issues of child abuse seriously and has threatened to sue the Sunday Tribune.

The accusations are particularly sensitive because they come in the wake of Gerry Adams's admission just before Christmas that his father had sexually abused children in his own family.

Adams told a radio station he had known about his father's crimes for more than a decade. The admission came shortly after it emerged that Adams's younger brother, Liam Adams, was wanted for child sex offences against his own daughter, Aine Tyrell, in the 1970s and 80s. Liam Adams remains on the run from police in Northern Ireland.

THE ANONYMOUS WOMAN'S STORYThe anonymous woman told the Sunday Tribune that she was abused at the age of 10 by a person who is now a Sinn Fein elected representative. For legal reasons, the Sunday Tribune referred to the person in its report as 'X' and left it unclear whether the alleged abuser was a man or a woman.

The paper explained that the anonymous woman had died from cancer and her father was in jail when she was imprisoned by X in an attic in Ardoyne with only a bucket to use instead of a lavatory.

"I was so scared that I wet the bed. X wouldn't let me change the sheets. I had to sleep in the ones soaked with my own urine." She said the mattress became infested with maggots and that the smell from the bucket and the soiled bed became overpowering.

"When I cried or screamed to get out of that room, X clasped my mouth shut," she claimed. "Then, X beat me with their hand and a belt [and] made me drink my own urine. This happened many times."

The Sunday Tribune reported that the abuse took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s and that the victim is now middle-aged.

She also claimed that X sexually abused her. "X made me come into the living room at night when everyone else was in bed," she told the Sunday Tribune. She was forced to touch X sexually. X threatened to kill her if she didn't.

"X said if I was killed nobody would miss me because nobody cared about me. When I refused to touch X sexually, I was beaten until I did. X sexually violated me, using wine bottles. Once X scraped [their] nails up and down my back until I bled."

The anonymous woman claimed Gerry Adams was aware of what she had been through. "I'm disgusted that X remains a Sinn Fein elected representative and I can't understand why X hasn't been prosecuted," she said. "Another family member informed Gerry Adams face-to-face of what X had done to me.

"Gerry promised to have X expelled from Sinn Fein immediately. I feel let down."

THE CAHILL RELATIVE'S STORYCahill's relative, now in her 20s, told the Sunday Tribune she was repeatedly raped as a 16-year-old by a senior IRA man in Belfast who knew Gerry Adams.

She claimed that in the year 2000 the IRA arranged a face-to-face meeting with her rapist, saying they wanted "to read the body language" to see who was telling the truth. "I felt physically sick," she stated. She claims she was never advised to report the rapes to the police or social services.

"The IRA offered me a counsellor," she said. "I said that would be a charade because it would be an IRA-friendly counsellor."

Later, she learnt that the rapist had been put under IRA house arrest in Belfast when it was discovered he had also sexually abused two of her cousins. However, she was later told he had "escaped".

"I didn't accept that," she told the Sunday Tribune. "I believe the IRA facilitated his move to Donegal."

Cahill's relative said she had attended a series of meetings with Gerry Adams but gave up in the end because it seemed "pointless". She claimed that at the first of these meetings Adams had said he was aware of the horror of abuse but that he "believed people could recover and continue with their lives".

SINN FEIN RESPONSEA Sinn Fein spokesman said on Sunday night that the party was considering suing the Sunday Tribune because the "allegations were founded on innuendo and sensationalism and not facts".

He went on: "Gerry Adams and the party refute absolutely any allegation of covering up instances of abuse. Our position on these matters is crystal clear. At all times the welfare of children is paramount...

"If an allegation of sexual abuse is made against a Sinn Fein member the party ensures that the matter is reported to the relevant statutory authorities. The member is suspended from the party without prejudice."

He added: "It is not the job of Sinn Fein to establish guilt or innocence and we will await the outcome of the police investigation." ·