Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams will not be prosecuted over Jean McConville murder

Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said Mr Adams and six others, among them Sinn Fein's northern chairman Bobby Storey, will not face charges.

The PPS made the announcement after reviewing police files on the seven individuals reported to them by detectives investigating the 1972 murder.

Mr Adams, 66, a former MP for West Belfast and now an elected representative for Co Louth in the Irish Dail, was arrested and questioned for four days about the murder last year.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Pamela Atchison said: "We have given careful consideration to the evidence currently available in respect of each of the three men and four women reported and have concluded that it is insufficient to provide a reasonable prospect of obtaining a conviction against any of them for a criminal offence."

Mrs McConville was dragged screaming 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 in the back of the head and then secretly buried - becoming one of the "Disappeared'' victims of the Troubles.

Her body was not found until 2003, when a storm uncovered her remains on a beach in Co Louth, in the Irish republic - 50 miles from her home.

Mr Adams was arrested after voluntarily presenting himself for interview at Antrim police station last April. He was held and questioned for four days before being released pending the outcome of the prosecution service's assessment of his police file.

After four decades of relative inactivity in the murder investigation, the case was invigorated in late 2013 when detectives obtained a number of taped recordings of former IRA members talking about the shooting.

The accounts had been given to researchers compiling an oral archive of the Troubles for Boston College in the USA. After a long legal battle against the college, the Police Service of Northern Ireland was handed custody of the recordings for potential evidence.

Their seizure prompted a flurry of arrests in 2014, including that of Mr Adams.

Two interviewees in the archive - former IRA commander Brendan Hughes and Old Bailey bomber Dolours Price, both now deceased - claimed Mr Adams ordered the killing of Mrs McConville - allegations the Sinn Fein veteran vehemently denied.

Upon his release last year, Mr Adams said most of the questions posed by detectives related to the claims made by Hughes and Price on the Boston tapes.

Veteran republican Ivor Bell, 78, from Ramoan Gardens in west Belfast, was charged with aiding and abetting the murder last year on the basis of evidence in the archive, namely a recording prosecutors claim was given by the defendant.

Of the seven files being reviewed by the PPS over the last number of months all but one related to the events around the murder.

Mr Storey was questioned as part of the wider police investigation, namely about an alleged IRA internal investigation of the killing in the 1990s.

PPS officials outlined the non-prosecution decisions to Mrs McConville's son Michael this morning.

He said the family's quest for justice would go on.

"Those who ordered, planned and carried out this war crime thought that their guilt could disappear along with her body," he said.

"But it has not and we will continue to seek justice for our mother and see those responsible held to account no matter how long it takes".

Here is a timeline of significant events relating to the notorious IRA murder of Belfast mother-of-ten Jean McConville:

1972: Mrs McConville is dragged screaming from her home in Divis flats in west Belfast by an IRA gang of around 12 men and women. It is the last time her children see her alive. She is shot in the back of the head and secretly buried, so becoming one of the "Disappeared" victims of the Troubles. No one has been convicted of her murder in the 43 years since.

1999: One year after the signing of the historic Good Friday peace accord in Northern Ireland, the IRA finally admits responsibility for killing the 37-year-old widow, claiming she was an informer for the British Army.

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains is set up by the British and Irish governments and the IRA passes on information on Mrs McConville's possible whereabouts on a stretch of coastline in Co Louth in the Irish Republic. However, subsequent searches by the Irish police fail to find her body.

2001: Academics, historians and journalists embark on a five-year project to collate an oral history of the Northern Ireland Troubles. The Boston College initiative involves interviewing former paramilitaries about their roles in the conflict on the understanding their accounts would not be made public until they die.

2003: The body of Mrs McConville is finally found by a dog walker on Shelling Hill beach in Co Louth after a heavy storm exposes her remains.

2006: An investigation by Northern Ireland's then police ombudsman Nuala O'Loan rejects the IRA claim that Mrs McConville was an informer.

2008: Brendan Hughes, a former IRA commander in Belfast, who was one of the figures interviewed for the Boston College project, dies.

2010: A book containing excerpts from Hughes's interviews is published. Among claims outlined in Voices from the Grave is the allegation that Gerry Adams ordered the murder of Mrs McConville. Mr Adams emphatically rejects the accusation.

In the same year Dolours Price, who was convicted of the IRA's bombing of the Old Bailey in 1973, makes similar allegations about Mr Adams. Price indicates that she has also spoken to researchers at Boston College. Mr Adams again denies the claims and highlights both Price and Hughes's criticism of his and Sinn Fein's involvement in the peace process.

2011: The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) launches a legal bid in the US to try to obtain tapes within the Boston College archive that relate to the murder of Mrs McConville.

2013: Dolours Price dies in her Dublin home of a suspected overdose of prescription drugs.

Later in the year the PSNI wins it lengthy court battle with Boston College and a number of the tapes are handed over.

2014: In March, veteran republican Ivor Bell, then 77, from Ramoan Gardens in west Belfast, is arrested and charged with aiding and abetting the murder of Mrs McConville and IRA membership.

Mr Adams, in response to the renewed focus on the McConville case in the wake of Bell's charges, issues a statement indicating he is willing to speak to the officers investigating the case. He again refutes any suggestion he had anything to do with the crime.

At different junctures in March and April, four women are arrested and questioned about the murder. All are subsequently released pending police reports to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS).

In April, Mr Adams, after back and forth contacts between his lawyer and detectives, presents himself at Antrim police station for interview. He is immediately arrested and taken into custody - a move that Sinn Fein brands unnecessary and an example of "political policing''. After four days of questioning Mr Adams is released pending a report to prosecutors.

In May, a 56-year-old man is arrested in connection with the murder. He is released pending a report to prosecutors.

In November, Sinn Fein's high profile northern chairman Bobby Storey is arrested in connection with the overall investigation into the murder. It is understood he is questioned about an IRA internal investigation carried out decades after the killing. Mr Storey is released pending a report being sent to prosecutors.

A year of intense activity by PSNI detectives working on the case brings 11 arrests, with one man charged and seven reports, including one on Mr Adams, having being sent to prosecutors for assessment.

2015: In June, a PPS lawyer tells Belfast Magistrates Court that its prosecution of Bell will proceed - ending months of uncertainty about the case.

In September, the PPS's deputy director Pamela Atchison announces the prosecutorial decisions on the files of Mr Adams, Mr Storey and the five others.