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A Belfast court has dismissed Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly’s libel case against writer Malachi O’Doherty.

Mr Kelly had filed the lawsuit seeking damages for two radio interviews in which O’Doherty alleged Mr Kelly’s involvement in shooting a prison officer during the Maze escape in 1983.

The High Court in Belfast deemed Mr Kelly’s case as “scandalous, frivolous, and vexatious” and subsequently struck it out.

The ruling was published on Monday.

Mr Kelly was one of 38 IRA prisoners who escaped from the Maze prison near Lisburn.

During the prison break, a prison officer named John Adams sustained a gunshot wound to the head.

While Mr Kelly has never admitted to shooting him, he was acquitted of the charges during a trial in 1987.

In his claim, Mr Kelly argued that O’Doherty’s comments, made in 2019, had severely damaged his reputation and brought his standing as an MLA into disrepute.

However, O’Doherty countered by highlighting that the prison officer himself had accused Mr Kelly of firing the shot.

Furthermore, O’Doherty emphasized that Mr Kelly’s reputation had already been compromised due to his involvement in the 1973 Old Bailey bombings and his public identification as a former IRA member.

It is worth noting that Mr Kelly has also authored books related to the prison escape, although they do not disclose the identity of the shooter.

In his ruling, Master Evan Bell stated, “Considering what Mr Kelly has written in his books, it becomes exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for him to refute the argument that he was not jointly responsible for the battery.”

“Even if we accept that Mr Kelly has not explicitly admitted to pulling the trigger, the content of his books appears to make him civilly liable, based on the balance of probabilities, for the shooting of Mr Adams.”

“Given these circumstances, the defamation proceedings against Dr O’Doherty are entirely baseless and without merit, warranting their dismissal on the grounds of being scandalous, frivolous, and vexatious,” added Master Bell.