Jury in Liam Adams rape trial 'not properly briefed', says barrister
A jury which convicted Gerry Adams’s brother of sex offences against his daughter was not properly briefed by the trial judge, a barrister told appeal judges.
Liam Adams (aged 59) from west Belfast, was found guilty in 2013 of a string of attacks on Aine Dahlstrom when she was aged between four and nine in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
He was subsequently handed a 16-year sentence, only half of which he is expected to spend behind bars.
His case is being heard in the Appeal Court in Belfast where the defence said part of the judge’s charging of the jury may have put the burden of proof on Adams.
Defence barrister Eilis McDermott said: “It comes nowhere near the careful direction that a judge ought to give the jury in a case of this kind.”
Adams, formerly of Bernagh Drive, was found guilty of 10 offences against Mrs Dahlstrom – three counts of rape, four of indecent assault and three of gross indecency.
