Kincora Boys’ Home, East Belfast

‘Although it is an established fact that children were abused by staff in Kincora, this inquiry [Historical Institutional Abuse] in addition has to address, amongst others, a range of extraordinary allegations.

‘Not that the State failed to prevent abuse because of missed opportunities or ineffective systems of oversight and regulation but that it, with deliberation and planning, cynically orchestrated and utilised the abuse of children it was supposed to care for in order to further its own ends.

‘If true, that would mean those who had the privilege and responsibility of protecting citizens compounded the pain of those who suffered as a result.”

Barrister Joseph Aiken, counsel to The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry yesterday on the first day of its Kincora Boys’ Home module..

MI5 ‘used sexual abuse of children at Kincora to blackmail the politician paedophiles’ (Independent.co.uk)

Previously: A Boys’ Home Story

Kincora Boys’ Home, East Belfast.

A deadline of January 31 has been set for the British government to furnish all documents on Kincora Boys’ Home to the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

It is alleged that children at the home were raped and abused by a paedophile ring operating at the home with the knowledge of security forces.

Henry McDonald writes:

It will be fascinating to find out if, for instance, the Kincora material includes any “smoking gun” documents; ones which prove what many have suspected for decades – that the State knew about the paedophile ring there but did nothing to protect the boys from their tormentors. Instead, of course, the security forces resorted to blackmailing the abusers in order that they spy on fellow hardline loyalists.

…Even in situations where local political figures were compromised as a result of their sexual preferences, successive Governments ensured that these people were protected from public exposure in the wider interests of stability, political progress and even the peace process itself.

This writer knows of two cases in the late-1980s and 1990s in which two politicians were about be exposed by the tabloid Press, but the State then intervened to save their reputations.

Conspiracy of silence that shields Tory Kincora paedophile a symptom of State’s sordid double deals (Henry McDonald, Belfast Telegraph)

Previously: A Boys’ Home Story

(BBC)

[Kincora Boys’ Home in East Belfast]

The launch of an inquiry into allegations of an elite paedophile ring operating in children’s care homes in the UK has prompted calls for the inclusion of  Kincora Boys’ Home in Belfast.

In  January, 1980, the irish Independent revealed a cover-up in relation to child abuse at the home. Subsequently three members of staff, William McGrath, Raymond Semple, and Joseph Mains, were convicted of a number of child sexual abuse offences.

McGrath, who had been prominent in the Orange Order until expulsion due to his paedophilia, was the founder of a far-right Unionist organisation known as ‘Tara’.

It has been alleged by former M15 officer Colin Wallace – who had been attempting to leak details of Kincora to the press since 1973 – that McGrath was a long-term M15 operative and his handlers wer fully aware of his activities.

Shortly after the Kincora story broke, Wallace was arrested and convicted of the manslaughter of an acquaintance, a conviction subsequently quashed in 1996 on the basis of new evidence.

Allegations in the Irish Times about a political paedohphile ring associated with Kincora led to an Inquiry by Judge William Hughes (with Mr W.J. Patterson and Mr Harry Whalley).

Their report published in 1985 and available (in pdf form)  here dismisses this allegation, preferring to characterise Kincora as an example of a general malaise in institutional care generally.

The Report does however contain reference to at least one boy being taken to a location in the Republic of Ireland.

The location is not identified but quotes attributed to Wallace have indicated it may be in County Offaly.

Joshua Cardwell, a prominent Unionist, committed suicide after being questioned regarding a visit to Kincora.

Meanwhile, recent allegations regarding the alleged paedophile ring operating from the Elm House guest house in London also implicate a number of Northern Ireland politicians, including a named ‘Sinn Fein MP’ 

No references to the MP in question – a ‘Gary Walker’ – appear online other than in relation to the Elm Guest house and he is not included among the list of present and past MPs appearing on the Sinn Fein wikipedia page.

He does however appear on a Google Books search of Dod’s Parliamentary Directory although the party which he represents is not identifiable from the clipping available online. A possible peeodophile ring nom de plume?

Anyone?

Kincora: Time We Knew The Truth (Belfast Telegraph)

Thanks Sibling of Daedalus

(BBC)