Guardian issues apology to Mairia Cahill over Roy Greenslade article

After Ms Cahill waived her anonymity and appeared in the 2014 programme, Mr Greenslade wrote an article for the London newspaper questioning her motives and said he felt the programme was one-sided.

Guardian Editor-In-Chief Katharine Viner has now issued an apology to Ms Cahill saying “I can only apologise again that Roy Greenslade's article was not handled appropriately in the first place”.

Ms Cahill has now called on Mr Greenslade and then Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger to come forward and offer a public apology to her.

She told the Belfast Telegraph that she had received a lengthy statement from the newspaper, much of which can not be disclosed for legal reasons.

The Guardian has also amended the original article on their website addressing Ms Cahill's complaint.

"The Guardian’s readers’ editor considered the complaint and concluded that the columnist ought to have been open about his position" the updated article says.

After it emerged that Mr Greenslade had written for Sinn Fein publication An Phoblacht during the 1980s, this information was later added to further articles on the topic.

The Guardian said "he now says he regrets that he did not add it retrospectively to this piece and offers his “sincere apology for failing to disclose my own interests”.

"The lack of disclosure was especially unfair to a vulnerable individual, and the Guardian has now apologised to Ms Cahill," the website update read.

However they also said Mr Greenslade "felt his piece was a fair reflection of concerns raised elsewhere in the media at the time".

Ms Cahill said that she believed she was owed a full public apology over the matter.

"I think at the very least he owes me a public apology and so does Alan Rusbridger, I want to hear that he profusely apologises for what he did" she said.

"He has apologised for not putting his full disclosure on the piece, not for writing it."

Ms Cahill said she felt the article was "very shabby treatment of an abuse victim."

"An abuse victim waived anonymity to speak out, he then tried to call into question my credibility and motivation for doing so," she said.

"What he wrote was not accurate, I didn't waive my anonymity because I had political opposition to Sinn Fein.

"I waived anonymity after the Aine Adams documentary because I was so horrified at what had happened to her and to try and ensure nobody else would be abused in the same way that I was.

"He then tried to turn it something else. It was Sinn Fein's refusal to admit what had happened to me that required me to keep going public with my case."

Ms Cahill claimed that the IRA conducted its own inquiry into her rape claim, subjecting her to interrogation and forcing her to confront her alleged attacker.

The man she accused of rape was later acquitted of criminal charges in court after Ms Cahill withdrew her evidence.

Belfast Telegraph