SINN Féin president Gerry Adams has been accused of many things over the years, but nothing as dastardly as pinching a kid’s candy…until now.

Former UUP leader David Trimble was being interviewed with his wife Daphne when it was claimed his former political nemesis nabbed his son’s M&M's during a summit in Washington DC, before the now-Tory peer rebuffed Adams’ attempts to get to know him personally over dinner dates and even holidays.

Speaking to the Irish Times at his Lisburn home, the Trimbles recalled an alleged incident in which both political leaders were invited to an event hosted by the US National Press Club in 1998, shortly before the UUP boss received his Nobel Peace Prize alongside the SDLP’s John Hume.

The Trimbles told interviewer Gerry Moriarty that their 10-year-old son Nicholas had gathered a pile of chocolate M&Ms that had been dished out by the hosts for the youngsters attending the event.

The boy went to fetch a drink, only to return to his table to find his sweeties had been swiped.

Gerry Adams pictured with M&M (Martin & Michelle) and one of the infamous flavoured candies

His parents had only one suspect in mind for the candy crime: “Gerry Adams had pinched his M&M's,” Daphne said.

Nicholas now sits as a UUP councillor in Lisburn, and has yet to reveal if the Republican hijacking of his sugar hit prompted his entry into politics.

The Irish Times interview also threw up anecdotes of a previous encounter in 1999, during crucial peace talks in England.

At a meeting chaired by US Senator George Mitchell, who helped broker the Good Friday Agreement the previous year, Adams allegedly invited Trimble to get to know him personally outside of the heady sphere of Irish politics.

“He elaborated on that, and he said, ‘we should dine together, go out together’. And he got to the stage where we should go on holiday together,” Trimble said, recalling how he directed his reply to Martin McGuinness, who was sitting alongside the pair.

“At that point I leaned forward to look past Gerry and caught Martin’s eye and said, ‘You know Martin, just because you get to know someone better doesn’t mean you get to like them any more’. That put an end to that.”