David Trimble has described as "grossly offensive" allegations that he had been associated with people involved in the murder of Catholics by Loyalist paramilitaries. He was giving evidence in a libel case in London, which has been told that a high-powered committee, including senior RUC officers and politicians, had co-ordinated the killings. Mr Trimble described the claims as "simply not credible".
David Trimble's appearance in the witness box had been eagerly anticipated in this long-running libel case. He came to the High Court in London today give evidence on behalf of the Sunday Times. The newspaper is being sued by programme-maker Sean McPhilemy. The paper had described as a hoax his Channel Four documentary in 1991, in which he had alleged that the murders of Catholics by Loyalist paramilitaries had been co-ordinated by a committee of Northern Ireland businessmen, politicians, lawyers and police officers. In a book eight years later, Mr McPhilemy said that David Trimble had knowingly associated with those responsible for the murders of his own constituents.
In the witness box, David Trimble said that the idea that there was a group of that nature meeting to organise paramilitary activity was simply not credible and that it was grossly offensive to suggest that he'd associated with such people. Counsel for Sean McPhilemy, James Price QC, then cross-examined Mr Trimble about his membership of Vanguard in the 1970s. Mr. Price said that Vanguard rallies had a paramilitary flavour. David Trimble replied that he had only attended one rally. James Price asked him if he was aware that Vanguard was supported by the UDA. Mr Trimble snapped back that the UDA was then a legal organisation.
James Price asked David Trimble about statements by Vanguard leader, William Craig, about the use of violence against Republicans. Mr Trimble looked at the jury and replied that such talk of violence was commonplace at the time. People in Northern Ireland, he said, thought they were on the brink of civil war. The allegations of David Trimble's association with the so-called "murder committee" had surfaced during the negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement, but Mr Trimble said that no one had taken them seriously. He said that even Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, with whom he was in talks at the time, had not raised the matter with him.
