Jude Collins

Thursday 3 November 2011

Liam Adams is innocent



Liam Adams is innocent. He is, you know.  The same as you’re innocent and I’m innocent and Uncle Tom Cobley and all are innocent, until proven guilty.  But given the amount of coverage his case has been given, if someone today said  to you “Liam Adams”, somewhere in the back of your mind the thought might very well tumble around “Oh yeah, he sexually abused his daughter, didn’t he?” That’s what highly-publicised charges of misconduct or crime do: the charge becomes the verdict even before the case has been heard.  And don’t tell me people suspend judgment until the decision is made in court regarding guilt or innocence. Supposing it was you who were charged with the crime Liam Adams has been charged with. Do you really believe there wouldn’t be a shift in the way your friends and acquaintances and work-colleagues regarded you? It can’t be said often enough: Liam Adams and every single person charged with a crime is innocent,  and stays innocent, until found guilty in a court of law. And sometimes not even then.

Behind the injustice of assumed-guilt lies another injustice: the injustice of guilt by association. I’ve heard and read media reports on  Liam Adams’s extradition to the north several times in the course of the past few days, and in every case – in print and on air – the fact that he’s Gerry Adams’s brother is included.  What effect does that have? It sets up in the public mind a poisonous equations: child abuse – Liam Adams – Gerry Adams. Somehow the charge against Liam Adams becomes a charge against Gerry Adams. 

You think this guilt-by-association idea – or in this case blood-relationship –  is a fantasy? In that case, why, when you apply for the role of, say, Prison Visitor, or whatever it’s called now, are you asked to give your parents’s names, including your mother’s maiden name? Or why are there people who’ll tell you “Pat Finucane – he had relatives that were in the IRA, so…”  It’s in the blood, you’re related to someone who’s seen as criminal,  so clearly you too must be criminal or at the very least have criminal tendencies, better watch out for that guy. It even happens to children.  I’ve heard the occasional bone-brained teacher say in the staffroom :“Oh, you have one of the Murphys/Smiths/McStravicks/Whatever  this year – God pity you!  I taught both the older brothers – they’re a bad lot”.

Could anything be more unjust than to blame people for what their relatives do? Or, as is happening in the Liam Adams case, to form a link in the public mind which you hope will damage a political party.

The law may or may not be a ass. But the way some people manipulate it is venomous.

12 comments:

  1. Jude

    Enjoy reading your blogs. I am curious to know if there was any particular reason for choosing the surname McStravick as it is my name.

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  2. Hello Pat - glad you like them. No, sheer chance, I assure you - it's a name that, once heard, sticks in the head. I first heard it over 50 years ago and although I haven't met anyone since who has it - yourself excepted - it's remained lodged in my (thick) skull.

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  3. I have relatives called McStravick and believe me you wouldn't want them in your class, house, pub....... lol

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  4. The public figure who most directly highlighted the fact that Liam Adams is the brother of Gerry Adams was Gerry Adams himself. He went further, and said that he believed the statements of his niece, Aine - and therefore did not believe the denials of his brother - and also revealed a further specific episode of child abuse within his family. Many people applauded Gerry Adams for speaking out on such a difficult issue. Are you condemning him, Jude ? Kevin.

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  5. Fair play for tackling such a difficult and sensitive subject..

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  6. Anon 21:18 'Do you condemn' - Oh dear God. What a tedious, mind-numbing question. Ask me if I agree or disagree, but please, not 'condemn'. I don't think Gerry Adams was the one who raised the fact that Liam was his brother - in fact I know it was the media, not him. I'm not sure if he actually said he believed the statements of his niece - in fact I'd be astonished if he did - bad thing to do when a case is pending. But if he did, then I think he shouldn't have. Why? Because I have an old-fashioned notion that when people are accused, they're innocent until proven guilty. Yes, I know, I need to get with the programme but there you go...

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  7. Nobody actually thought you were going to condemn Gerry Adams but you had plainly forgotten that he spoke publicly and in some detail about the case of his brother and was the first person to reveal the allegations against his father. You had not checked the background, and your piece looks fairly feeble as a result.

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  8. I would love if some journalist would be brave enough to do some investigative journalism about were liam was in the last 20 years the police were supposed to be looking for him as a close friend i have seen his evidence in black and white and i have seen the charge sheet and i beleave him a 100% I was also in court on the 10th when the police said they werent ready to hand in the charges as they want to retract some statements even though they said they had this document ready on two different occassions , Gerry Adams suited himself personnally by saying what he said he didnt care who he hurt ,he put his career first and Justice John Edwards said this in a high court in Dublin .The media are on trial here now to because they were so disgraceful in the way they portrayed him as a guilty man i would also love to know how utv recieved a charge sheet and showed this when liam had not been charged yet they also failed to report that he had denied all the charges in his police interview preferring to call him" Liam the peado whose on the run"

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  9. it is sick and disgusting that the media can print whatever they want about a person whether its the truth or not.I believe a person is innocent until proven guilty but it seems 2 me that liam adams will never get a fair trial,how could he?

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  10. IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO HEAR WHAT LIAM ADAMS HAS TO SAY, HE SEEMS TO BE THE ONLY PERSON NOT TO HAVE SPOKEN TO THE PRESS OR GIVEN INTERVIEWS.FORGIVE ME IF I AM WRONG BUT I THOUGHT THERE WAS SUCH A THING AS CONTEMPT OF COURT, IT IS BEYOND ME HOW SO MANY PEOPLE INVOLVED WITH THIS CASE COULD TALK TO THE MEDIA OR MAKE TV PROGRAMMES AND EXPECT TO HAVE ANY CREDIBILITY IN COURT.JUST LETS HOPE THEY ALL DONT START RETRACTING THEIR STATEMENTS WHEN THEY GET TO THE HOT SEAT.THIS CASE IS A TOTAL FARCE AND IT WOULDNT SURPRISE ME ONE BIT THAT ITS NOT EVEN ABOUT LIAM ADAMS.

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  11. she must really hate him for 1 of 3 reasons, 1 he did it, 2 he is a c**t or 3 someones paying her

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