Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness is blaming a “dark side” within North Ireland’s police for the arrest of party leader Gerry Adams in a 40-year old murder case.  He also accuses police of a “deliberate attempt to influence the outcome of elections” in three weeks.

The Sinn Fein president voluntarily went to the police station in Antrim and remains in custody.  McGuinness says the arrest is the product of people in the Police Service of North Ireland as well as dissident Irish Republicans who reject the peace strategy that he and Adams employed to end the violence of “The troubles”.

“I think we have seen that dark side flex its muscles in the course of the last couple of days,” said McGuinness, Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister, at a press conference at Stormont.  “We know who they are. The reformers know who they are.”

In 1972, 37-year old Jean McConville was taken from her home in a Catholic area of Belfast and killed by the Irish Republican Army, which suspected her of being a police informant.  Her body wasn’t found until 2003, four-years after the IRA admitted responsibility. 

Before he walked into Antrim Police Station, Adams said he was “innocent of any part” in the murder.

“I believe that the killing of Jean McConville and the secret burial of her body was wrong and a grievous injustice to her and her family,” he added.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron claims there had been “absolutely no political interference in this issue”.