THE paedophile brother of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for raping his daughter.

Liam Adams, 58, from west Belfast, was found guilty last month of a string of sexual assaults on Aine Dahlstrom when she was a child in the late-1970s and early-1980s.

Judge Corinne Philpott, QC, handed down the sentence, which included a further two years on probation, at Belfast Crown Court.

Liam Adams, was found guilty of 10 offences against his daughter. The abuse was committed over a five-year period from 1977 to 1981, when she was aged between four and nine.

Ms Dahlstrom has waived her right to anonymity.

Adams's convictions have heaped pressure on his high-profile older brother to explain why he did not alert the authorities to the abuse allegations when he first learned of them.

During a first trial earlier this year, which collapsed, the Sinn Fein leader, now a public representative in the Irish Republic, claimed he first heard of the sex abuse claims in 1987 and, 13 years later, his younger brother admitted his guilt to him.

The former west Belfast MP faced criticism for not informing police at the time of the revelations. His statements to detectives were made in 2007 and 2009.

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers recommended the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) take no case against the Sinn Fein veteran. Gerry Adams has insisted he had committed no offence.