This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/07/ivor-bell-stand-trial-involvement-jean-mcconville

The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Ivor Bell to stand trial for involvement in Jean McConville murder Ivor Bell to stand trial for involvement in Jean McConville murder
(35 minutes later)
The veteran republican Ivor Bell will stand trial for involvement in the 1972 murder of Jean McConville, a judge in Northern Ireland has ruled. Veteran IRA member Ivor Bell is to face charges over one of the most notorious murders of the early Troubles.
Bell, 79, from west Belfast, is charged with aiding and abetting the kidnap, killing and secret burial of the widow and mother of 10. A court in Belfast has ordered that Bell be charged in connection with the kidnapping, murder and secret burial of Jean McConville in December 1972.
Bell, who is also charged with IRA membership, appeared at Belfast magistrates court, where he was told the high-profile case would proceed to the crown court. The west Belfast widow was abducted at gunpoint in front of her children in the Divis flats complex, driven across the Irish border, shot dead and then buried in an unmarked location near a County Louth beach. The 37-year-old woman became the most famous of “the disappeared” - victims of the IRA whom the organisation killed as informers before hiding their bodies in bogs, woodlands and other isolated areas.
District judge Amanda Henderson said: “There is a case to answer at this stage.” During a short hearing at Belfast magistrates court on Thursday morning, Bell stood alone in the dock as the charges were read out. When asked if he had any reply to the two charges he said “no”. Asked if he wanted to call witnesses at this stage, he again said “no”. Bell repeatedly denied having any involvement in the McConville murder.
Bell denies all the charges against him. Following a two-day preliminary hearing last week, the district judge, Amanda Henderson, said: ”Having regard to all the evidence I’m satisfied to the required standard of proof that at this stage there’s evidence to admit the accused for trial.”
McConville was the first of the Disappeared, more than a dozen people the IRA killed and buried in secret whom they accused of being informers. The case against the former IRA commander centres on alleged testimony he is accused of giving to the Belfast Project, an archive of IRA and Ulster loyalist paramilitaries over their role in the armed conflict between 1969 to the ceasefires of the early 1990s. The recorded testimonies of the former militants were for Boston College in the US and were not meant to have been released into the public domain until individual ex-IRA and loyalist activists had died.
The case against Bell rests partly on an alleged interview he gave to the Belfast Project, an archive of IRA and Ulster loyalists who gave testimony about their role in the conflict for Boston College. However, the Police Service of Northern Ireland has successfully pursued the recorded material from the project through the US courts system. PSNI detectives believe some of that archive material is connected to the McConville case. The PSNI’s seizure of some of the Boston College/Belfast Project archive undermined the condition of confidentiality the participants were given when they were interviewed.
Henderson’s decision to proceed to trial followed a two-day preliminary inquiry at the Laganside court complex last week. It is alleged that Bell is the man referred to as “Z” on the Boston College tapes, who allegedly spoke about the circumstances surrounding McConville’s disappearance and murder. Her body was only discovered in 2003 by a man walking his dog on a beach in Co Louth just across the border in the Irish Republic. Bell’s defence team have argued that the man known as Z is not their client.
The judge said she was satisfied the strength of the evidence was sufficient to meet the threshold to return the accused for trial. Six of McConville’s children were in court on Thursday to hear Henderson’s decision. None of them spoke to the media after the ruling. Her children have been engaged in a 25-year campaign to uncover the truth about what happened to their mother. It was not until 1999 that the IRA finally admitted it had been responsible for killing her.
Throughout the brief hearing, white-haired Bell stood in the dock beside a prison guard, wearing a blue coat, grey and white striped shirt and grey cardigan. Bell, who was also charged with IRA membership in the non-jury court, was released on continuing bail. His bail conditions were amended, and he must now report to police once a week rather than twice.
On the advice of his solicitor he replied “no” when asked if he had any response or intended to call witnesses.