A top English human rights lawyer has opened an official Belfast fact-finding probe into why a criminal trial against an alleged Irish Republican Army rapist collapsed.
The case has been front-page news in Ireland ever since Mairia Cahill, one of the three women who accused the alleged IRA man of rape, went public in October with her story and accused Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams of leading a cover-up designed to protect the attacker and silence his victims. Adams denies this.
Cahill and the two other women, who have retained legal anonymity, met the fact-finder yesterday to discuss his investigation.
All three withdrew their testimony before the trial began, citing frustration over legal delays and prosecutors' tactics.
The investigator, Keir Starmer, said he would report his findings this spring.
