Liam Adams,a suspected pedophile and brother of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, gave himself up at a police station in County Sligo on Tuesday. Due to a mix-up he was not arrested as an arrest warrant had never been received from police in Northern Ireland.
He is accused of sexually abusing his daughter from 1977 to 1985. She says the abuse started when she was just four years of age
The Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) is in the process of attaining a European arrest warrant for him. Liam Adams is believed to be living in Donegal.
He faces 23 charges of raping and abusing his daughter between 1978 and 1983.
Aine Tyrell, his daughter, went public went the abuse details last week. In November Liam Adams skipped bail and failed to turn up for a preliminary hearing in Belfast.
Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams had publicly appealed for his brother to hand himself in.
Gerry Adams also revealed that his father had abused some family members in the past. His father, a former IRA member, was given a Republican funeral when he died and Adams said that he had considered removing the tricolor from the coffin as he felt he was a disgrace to the flag.
In the mid 1990's Sinn Fein and Gerry Adams asked victims of sexual abuse not to report sex crimes to the RUC. In a response to the Irish Times, Adams defended his actions and said that he felt that counsellors should have being contacted instead and that at the time the RUC were "using these issues for their own militaristic ends."
A Sinn Fein spokesperson released a statement saying, "In his 1995 comments, Gerry Adams did not call on people not to report sexual abuse. Gerry Adams consistently urged people dealing with cases of sexual abuse, who had genuine and justifiable concerns about the RUC, to go to the properly trained professionals available within the social services network.
The use of social services by families affected by child abuse was not an alternative to the RUC but rather an avenue into them and the criminal justice system and offered another layer of protection for victims and their families when dealing with the RUC, who in the past tried to use such cases for their own ends."
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