Senior Counsel for former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has said that a BBC programme which aired almost ten years ago amounted to an "unjustified attack on his reputation".
Tom Hogan made his remarks at the start of defamation proceedings taken by Mr Adams against the broadcaster for a Spotlight programme and subsequent online article on the killing of former informer Denis Donaldson.
Mr Donaldson, a former senior Sinn Féin official, was shot dead in a cottage near Glenties in Donegal in April 2006, months after admitting he had been an informer for the police and M15 for 20 years.
This morning a 12-person jury was sworn in to hear the action.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens said the case relates to what was broadcast by the BBC Spotlight current affairs programme on 20 September 2016 and a website article published the day after with the headline "Gerry Adams Sanctioned Denis Donaldson's Killing".
In his opening remarks to the jury, Mr Hogan said: "There are few defamation cases as serious as this one".
He said that ultimately the Constitution protects every citizen to a good name.
He said a good reputation is something to be prized and that Mr Adams’ reputation is that of a peacemaker and that it has taken him a lifetime to gain that reputation.
Mr Hogan said the essence of the case is an "unjustified attack on his reputation".
Addressing the jurors, he said he presumed that Mr Adams needed no introduction to them and expected he was well known to them.
He said he was credited with others with bringing about the peace process within Northern Ireland.
He said Mr Adams had been in London when he learned of the murder of Mr Donaldson from Peter Hain, who was then the Secretary of State.
"It was immediately condemned by Gerry Adams," Mr Hogan said.
He said news of the Spotlight programme had come "out of the blue" for Mr Adams, ten years after the killing.
Mr Hogan said even though Mr Adams’ denial of wrongdoing was noted and stated in the programme and the online article, it was never put to the anonymous source.
"There’s no reason why that couldn’t have been done," he said.
Mr Hogan said the anonymous source was permitted to make his allegation without any contradiction of any kind.
He said to put it simply, it is a journalism "no-no" to rely on a single anonymous source for a serious allegation such as the one that was made.
Mr Hogan also said Mr Adams will tell the court how the accusation that he sanctioned the murder affected him.
"He was friendly with Donaldson family," and still is, the court heard.
He also said the former Sinn Féin leader will also say how he could not let this particular allegation "pass".
Towards the end of today’s proceedings, Mr Adams took the stand.
Answering questions from his counsel, Declan Doyle SC, he spoke about his early life growing up in Belfast.
He said that he came from a "very working-class background" and that there was a "huge amount of poverty".
His biggest ambition when he was younger, he said, was to win an All-Ireland with the Antrim hurling team and that he was "conscious" of being Irish.
He said it was in 1966, on the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising, that he began moving to become a member of Sinn Féin.
The anniversary, he said, affected him deeply.
Mr Adams was also asked about civil rights at the time and the discrimination against Catholics.
He said there was discrimination in housing and employment and said it was "all about the State trying to retain control".
It is expected he will continue his evidence tomorrow.
Earlier, Mr Justice Owens outlined the laws and definitions around defamation and it defences.
He told the jurors that they were the "fact finders" in this case and the standard they had to be satisfied with was "on the balance of probabilities" rather than the criminal standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt".
He also told them they had to try the evidence presented to them and doing their own research was not permitted.
He said that would be a serious matter, and could amount to contempt of court, which is a criminal offence.
Mr Justice Owens told the court that the trial is likely to last up to four weeks.
Mr Adams, 76, stepped down as leader of Sinn Féin in 2018, after 34 years in charge of the party.
