Jean McConville murder: IRA veteran Bobby Storey arrested
Detectives investigating the murder and abduction of Jean McConville in 1972 say Bobby Storey has been arrested in West Belfast
A senior Northern Ireland republican alleged to have been a director of IRA intelligence has been arrested by detectives investigating the murder and abduction of Jean McConville in 1972.
Bobby Storey was arrested in West Belfast in the early hours of Wednesday morning and taken for questioning to the serious crime suite in Antrim.
A spokeswoman for Northern Ireland Police confirmed a 58-year-old man has been arrested in relation to the murder investigation.
The abduction, killing and secret burial of Mrs McConville is one of the most notorious crimes of the Northern Ireland Troubles.
Mrs McConville was dragged, screaming, away from her children in the Divis flats in west Belfast by a gang of up to 12 men and women after being wrongly accused of informing to the security forces.
She was interrogated, shot dead and secretly buried, becoming one of the "Disappeared" victims of the Troubles. Her body was not found until 2003 on a beach in Co Louth, 50 miles from her home.
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The police case lay effectively dormant for decades until a flurry of activity this year after a court in the United States compelled a university in Boston to hand over to police recorded interviews with veteran republicans about Mrs McConville’s murder.
Boston College interviewed several former paramilitaries about the Troubles on the understanding that transcripts would not be published until after their deaths. After one interviewee, the former IRA Commander Brendan Hughes, died in 2008 it emerged that on the tapes he alleged that Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams was a senior IRA leader during the Troubles and had ordered Mrs McConville’s killing.
The interviews led to a series of arrests, including the four-day detention in April of Mr Adams. Mr Adams denies any part in the abduction or killing and was released without charge.
Last month, detectives also arrested an unnamed 73-year-old man over the case.
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