Kincora Boys' Home

Last updated

The former Kincora Boys' Home building (photographed in 2018) No 236 Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast (August 2018) (geograph 5881162).jpg
The former Kincora Boys' Home building (photographed in 2018)

The Kincora Boys' Home was a boys' home in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, that was the scene of serious organised child sexual abuse. It caused a scandal and led to an attempted cover-up in 1980, with allegations of state collusion. [1]

Contents

On 31 May 2016, the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) began examining allegations relating to Kincora, including claims that a paedophile ring with links to the intelligence services was based there. Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers said that all state agencies would co-operate with the inquiry. [2] On 20 January 2017, the HIA inquiry concluded that the abuse which took place at Kincora was limited to the actions of three staff members and did not take place with the collusion of the state or intelligence services. [3] The head of the HIA observed that it was a matter of urgency that the victims be compensated up to £100,000. [4]

In 2016, Gary Hoy, a former resident of Kincora, lost a UK Supreme Court challenge to the powers of the HIA, which could not compel the UK security services to hand over documents or testify. [5] Clint Massey, another former resident, likewise stated in 2015 that due to the scope of the allegations, the HIA was inappropriate and that, instead, Kincora should be investigated by the Goddard Inquiry. [6] Richard Kerr, another former resident, rejected the remarks made by HIA, specifically the claim that the abuse was limited to three members of staff. In March 2016, he issued a High Court writ suing four government agencies. He continued to challenge the veracity of the HIA investigation and advocated for it to be extended scope to include sexual abuse at Europa Hotel in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as well as in UK and Europe. [7]

The home was demolished in 2022.

History

The home was set up in 1958 by the local health authority to provide full-time accommodation for boys of (then) working age (15–18) who faced an abusive or otherwise compromised home life. [8] The Home closed in 1980 following the exposure of serious wrongdoing by staff and others, which started shortly after it opened. [9]

Sex abuse

First reported

The abuse first came to public attention on 24 January 1980 with a news report in the Irish Independent : [10] "Fitt to raise 'cover up' in Westminster – Sex Racket at Children's Home". It was reported that no prosecutions had taken place, despite allegations of abuse first surfacing in 1977 and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) at Belfast's Strandtown and Donegall Pass stations giving the Director of Public Prosecutions a report detailing allegations of boys being sexually abused and prostituted, and naming prominent businessmen as being involved. On 3 April 1980 three members of staff at the home, William McGrath, Raymond Semple and Joseph Mains, were charged with a number of offences relating to the systematic sexual abuse of children in their care over a number of years; they were all convicted. Mains, who had been the warden, was sentenced to six years' imprisonment, Semple, an assistant warden, to five years, and McGrath was jailed in December 1981 for four years. [11]

Allegations of cover-up

Allegations were later made that the RUC had been informed of the abuse at the home for years previously, but had not moved to prevent it. In his 1999 book The Dirty War, Martin Dillon claims that McGrath, who was also the leader of an obscure loyalist paramilitary group called Tara, may have been employed by MI5 since the 1960s and was being blackmailed into providing intelligence on other loyalist groups. [12]

Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church which he founded in 1951, was accused of failing to report McGrath's abuse to the relevant authorities. He initially denied ever being advised by his informant, a church member, Valerie Shaw, that it was taking place. Paisley later gave other versions acknowledging learning from Shaw about McGrath's homosexuality. [13]

During this time, it was alleged by the satirical current affairs magazine Private Eye that high-ranking members of the Whitehall Civil Service and senior officers of the British military were involved in the sexual abuse of boys in Kincora. [14]

New policy overturned

In response to increasing coverage in the media, the Eastern Health and Social Services Board decided to institute a policy of not employing "homosexuals" in any caring roles.[ citation needed ] Some people working in other homes, who were not alleged to have participated in abuse, were discovered to be homosexual and dismissed. The policy was later overturned by the Northern Ireland Department of Health and Social Services. [15]

1982 and 1984 inquiries

A "private inquiry" was set up in January 1982 by James Prior, the Northern Ireland Secretary, [11] under the Commissioner of Complaints, Stephen McGonagle, to deal with these allegations. However, it collapsed after three of its members resigned because they felt that the RUC had failed to carry out an effective investigation. [11]

Debates on Kincora were held in the Northern Ireland Assembly on 22 March and 9 November 1983. In January 1984, another inquiry, under Judge William Hughes with W.J. Patterson and Harry Whalley, was set up by James Prior. [11] [16]

Judge Hughes's Committee of Inquiry into Children's Homes and Hostels submitted its 355-page report on 31 December 1985. Amongst its 56 recommendations, which related mostly to the operation of children's homes and child care regulation, was one (46) that every criminal allegation made by a resident should be referred to the police. Another (4) was that the legal position regarding the exclusion of homosexuals from employment in residential child care should be established although the committee concluded that "the weight of opinion is against a policy of exclusion". [17]

According to the report, the 12 February 1982 The Irish Times referred to a BBC programme, "Scene Around Six", saying there was a "prostitution ring operating from the Kincora home" [17] was stated as unwarranted and sourced inaccurately to a witness who was never resident in Kincora and who had been abused by his uncle. That witness said "I have no knowledge of any important or influential men involved in any sex with me or any other boys." [18]

Hughes concluded that, "The events giving rise to this Inquiry...can no longer be regarded as exceptional. They must perhaps be recognised as earlier symptoms of a general malaise permeating the United Kingdom." [17]

Joshua Cardwell, an east Belfast Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (UPNI) councillor and Stormont MP who formerly chaired the Belfast Corporation Welfare Committee responsible for children's homes, committed suicide in 1982 after making a statement to the RUC in March over Kincora. [11]

Cardwell told the police of one conversation with the Belfast Town Clerk who had mentioned an imprecise allegation of homosexual conduct, but said that no complaints had ever come his way. [19] The Hughes report concluded, "There is no evidence that Councillor Cardwell took steps to prevent an investigation or suppress the matter. Nor is there any evidence that the Ministry of Home Affairs became aware of allegations or rumours of relating to homosexual misconduct at Kincora." [20]

Later revelations

In April 1990 writer Robert Harbinson (also known as Robin Bryans) stated in the Dublin-based magazine Now that Lord Mountbatten, Anthony Blunt and others were all involved in an old-boy network which held gay orgies in country houses on both sides of the Irish border, as well as at the Kincora Boys' Home. Harbinson sent letters and postcards to the rich and powerful in British establishment circles but once the postcards began to circulate there were complaints to the police and Harbinson was warned that he would be prosecuted for criminal libel. [21] An example of his letter-writing style is copied here.

In July 2014 former military intelligence officer Colin Wallace said that any new investigation into the abuse at the home should have access to information from intelligence agencies. [22] Wallace said that he received intelligence in 1973 that boys at the home were being abused, but some of his superior officers refused to pass on information. [22] He also said that the Terry and Hughes inquiries did not examine evidence relating to the intelligence services. [22]

In August 2014 another former intelligence officer, Brian Gemmell, said that he also had been ordered to stop investigating allegations of abuse at the home. [23] He said that he learned details of what happened in the home while gathering information on loyalists. [23] He was told he was running two agents who had close links to the home. [23] As well as telling him not to investigate, the senior officer told him to stop running an agent. [23] He had spoken out anonymously before, but dropped his anonymity because he wanted the allegations to be investigated again. [23]

It was alleged that extreme Ulster loyalists who were members of a paedophile ring committing offences at the Home were being blackmailed by MI5 and other branches of the security forces during the Troubles. In 2015 campaigners were trying to have Kincora included in a wide-ranging inquiry to establish whether the security services prevented action on the abuse so they could compromise some of the perpetrators. [24]

Until 2015, there had been no court hearing about the alleged cover-up with British state involvement, a cover-up that was alleged by victims to have lasted decades. An Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales was being set up at the time following revelations of widespread abuse in the aftermath of the Jimmy Savile revelations. However, the government intended to keep Kincora out of this process and within the remit of the HIA inquiry only. The Northern Ireland victims wanted a similar inquiry into their case, with fuller powers to compel witnesses to testify, and require the security service to provide documents, then available to the HIA. [1] On 17 February 2015 the High Court in Northern Ireland listed a full judicial review into the decision to keep Kincora out of the wider inquiry, which was heard in the first week of June 2015. [24]

On 20 January 2017, the HIA chairman Sir Anthony Hart dismissed claims that MI5 or any other British government agency had any role in covering up the reports of sex abuse which had occurred at Kincora and instead placed the blame on the poor investigating and reporting by the local police. [25]

In October 2022, former resident Arthur Smyth, issued a writ against the Department of Health, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and the Business Services Organisation. [26]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omagh bombing</span> 1998 car bombing in Northern Ireland by the Real IRA

The Omagh bombing was a car bombing on 15 August 1998 in the town of Omagh in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It was carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army, a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) splinter group who opposed the IRA's ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement, signed earlier in the year. The bombing killed 29 people and injured about 220 others, making it the deadliest incident of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Telephoned warnings which did not specify the location had been sent almost forty minutes beforehand, and police inadvertently moved people toward the bomb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendan Smyth</span> Northern Irish Catholic priest and convicted sex offender

Brendan Smyth O.Praem was a Catholic priest and convicted sex offender from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who became notorious as a child molester, using his position in the Catholic Church to obtain access to his victims. During a period of over 40 years, Smyth sexually abused and indecently assaulted at least 143 children in parishes in Belfast, Dublin and the United States. His actions were frequently hidden from police and the public by Roman Catholic officials. Controversy surrounding his case contributed to the downfall of the government of Republic of Ireland in December 1994.

Joseph Alan Johnston Campbell was a Northern Irish Pentecostal pastor and Orangeman from Belfast. He founded and served as pastor and director of the Restored Open Bible Ministries in Northern Ireland. He was an author on Bible studies, a lecturer in the British Israelism movement and an advocate of white supremacy. Strongly opposed to Catholicism, Campbell published anti-Catholic literature and argued that the white Celto Anglo Saxon peoples of the world represent the lost tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel. He was known in Historicist circles due to his denial of the Westminster Confession of Faith, while Fundamentalist Protestants rejected his teachings as not being biblical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">De La Salle Brothers</span> Catholic religious teaching congregation

The De La Salle Brothers, officially named the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools abbreviated FSC, is a Catholic lay religious congregation of pontifical right for men founded in France by Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (1651–1719), and now based in Rome, Italy. The De La Salle Brothers are also known as the Christian Brothers, French Christian Brothers, or Lasallian Brothers. The Lasallian Christian Brothers are distinct from the Congregation of Christian Brothers, often also referred to as simply the Christian Brothers, or Irish Christian Brothers. The Lasallian Brothers use the post-nominal abbreviation FSC to denote their membership of the order, and the honorific title Brother, abbreviated "Br."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dublin and Monaghan bombings</span> 1974 terrorist bombings in Ireland

The Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974 were a series of co-ordinated bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland, carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Three car bombs exploded in Dublin during the evening rush hour and a fourth exploded in Monaghan almost ninety minutes later. They killed 35 civilians, including an unborn child, and injured almost 300. Together, the bombings were the deadliest attack of the conflict known as the Troubles, and the deadliest attack in the Republic's history. Most of the victims were young women, although the ages of the dead ranged from 4½ months up to 80 years.

Freddie Scappaticci was an Irish IRA member named in the Kenova report as a British Intelligence mole with the codename Stakeknife.

Rosemary Nelson was a Northern Irish solicitor who was killed with a bomb planted in her car by an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in 1999.

During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, British security forces were accused by some of operating a "shoot-to-kill" policy, under which suspected paramilitary members were killed without an attempt being made to arrest them. This alleged policy was claimed to be most frequently directed against suspected members of Irish republican paramilitary organisations, such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). According to a 1985 inquiry by a team of international lawyers titled Shoot to Kill?, undercover security force units were "trained to shoot to kill even where killing is not legally justifiable and where alternative tactics could and should be used." The British government, including the Northern Ireland Office, consistently denied that there was ever a "shoot-to-kill" policy, stating that "like everyone else, the security forces must obey the law and are answerable to the courts for their actions."

John Colin Wallace is a British former member of Army Intelligence in Northern Ireland and a psychological warfare specialist. He refused to become involved in the Intelligence-led 'Clockwork Orange' project, which was an attempt to smear various individuals including a number of senior British politicians in the early 1970s. Wallace also attempted to draw public attention to the Kincora Boys' Home sexual abuse scandal several years before the Royal Ulster Constabulary intervened.

Tara was an Ulster loyalist movement in Northern Ireland that espoused a brand of evangelical Protestantism. Preaching a hard-line and somewhat esoteric brand of loyalism, Tara enjoyed some influence in the late 1960s before declining amid a high-profile sex abuse scandal involving its leader William McGrath.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God</span> Roman Catholic religious order

The Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, officially the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God, are a Catholic religious order founded in 1572. In Italian they are also known commonly as the Fatebenefratelli, meaning "Do-Good Brothers", and elsewhere as the "Brothers of Mercy", the "Merciful Brothers" and the "John of God Brothers". The order carries out a wide range of health and social service activities in 389 centres and services in 46 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John McKeague</span> Northern Irish loyalist (1930–1982)

John Dunlop McKeague was a Northern Irish loyalist and one of the founding members of the paramilitary group the Red Hand Commando in 1970. A number of authors on the Troubles in Northern Ireland have accused McKeague, a homosexual paederast, of involvement in the Kincora Boys' Home scandal but he was never convicted. He was shot dead by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in Belfast in January 1982.

Martin McGartland is a former British informer who infiltrated the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1989 to pass information to RUC Special Branch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knox Cunningham</span> American lawyer

Sir Samuel Knox Cunningham, 1st Baronet, was a Northern Irish barrister, businessman and politician. As an Ulster Unionist politician at a time when the Unionists were part of the Conservative Party, he was also a significant figure in United Kingdom politics as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Harold Macmillan. His nephew was Sir Josias Cunningham.

Joshua Cardwell, JP (1910–1982) was a Unionist politician in Northern Ireland.

Roy Garland is a newspaper columnist for the news publication Irish News and a member of the Ulster Unionist Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual abuse scandals in Catholic orders and societies</span>

As distinct from abuse by some parish priests, who are subject to diocesan control, there has also been abuse by members of Roman Catholic orders, which often care for the sick or teach at school. Just as diocesan clergy have arranged parish transfers of abusive priests, abusive brothers in Catholic orders are sometimes transferred.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Cashel Orphanage</span> Boys orphanage in St. Johns, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

The Mount Cashel Orphanage, known locally as the Mount Cashel Boys' Home, was a boys' orphanage located in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The orphanage was operated by the Congregation of Christian Brothers, and became infamous for a sexual abuse scandal and cover-up by the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and NL justice officials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William McGrath</span> Northern Ireland loyalist (1916–1991)

William Worthington McGrath was a loyalist from Northern Ireland who founded the far-right organisation Tara in the 1960s, having also been prominent in the Orange Order until his expulsion due to his paedophilia. A house master in Kincora Boys' Home in East Belfast, in 1981 he was jailed for four years for paedophile activities at the Home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry</span> Legal inquiry

The 2014–2016 Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, often referred to as the HIA Inquiry, is the largest inquiry into historical institutional sexual and physical abuse of children in Northern Ireland legal history. Its remit covers institutions in Northern Ireland that provided residential care for children from 1922 to 1995, but excludes most church-run schools.

References

  1. 1 2 Dodd, Vikram; Norton-Taylor, Richard (16 February 2015). "MI5 accused of covering up sexual abuse at boys' home". The Guardian. London.
  2. ↑ "Kincora Boys' Home: Inquiry to examine abuse claims". BBC News. 31 May 2016. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  3. ↑ "'No credible evidence' of paedophile ring at Kincora Boys' Home". ITV News. 20 January 2017.
  4. ↑ Fitzmaurice, Maurice (20 January 2017). "Abuse inquiry recommends victims be paid compensation of up to £100,000". Belfast Live.
  5. ↑ "Abuse survivor loses legal battle over scope of Kincora inquiry". Irish News. Belfast. 28 May 2016.
  6. ↑ Hanning, James (15 February 2015). "Kincora scandal: Abuse victim seeks Judicial Review over MI5 link to Belfast boys' home". The Independent. London.
  7. ↑ Young, David (7 February 2017). "Former resident of Kincora Boys' Home to launch legal action over inquiry findings". Irish News. Belfast. Press Association.
  8. ↑ "Kincora boys' home – abuse cover up". hampsonhughes.com. 7 August 2014.
  9. ↑ Dorman, Nick; O'Cleirigh, Fiona (23 March 2013). "Police re-open child sex abuse investigation at Kincora boys home in Belfast". Sunday People (London).
  10. ↑ "Child Sex Racket Children's Home". Irish Independent. Dublin. 24 January 1980. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 McBride, Sam (3 January 2013). "Kincora file conspicuously absent from government records". News Letter . Archived from the original on 16 January 2014.
  12. ↑ Dillon, Martin (1999). The Dirty War . Taylor & Francis. ISBN   0-415-92281-X.
  13. ↑ O'Dowd, Niall (13 September 2010). "Ian Paisley will protest Pope Benedict on child abuse despite his own history". Irish Central.
  14. ↑ Whelan, Peadar (2 December 2012). "Cover-up and lies at heart of the British Establishment". An Phoblacht.
  15. ↑ Social Work, the Media and Public Relations, Bob Franklin and Nigel Parton, Routledge, 1991
  16. ↑ Scanlan, Margaret (21 June 2001). Plotting Terror: Novelists and Terrorists in Contemporary Fiction. University of Virginia Press. ISBN   9780813920351.
  17. 1 2 3 Hughes, W.H.; Patterson, W.J.; Whalley, H. (1986). Report of the Inquiry into Children's Homes and Hostels (Report). Belfast: HMSO: The Stationery Office Books. pp. 201, 325, 342. ISBN   978-0337073564.
  18. ↑ Hughes, pp 200
  19. ↑ Hughes, pp 70
  20. ↑ Hughes, pp 93
  21. ↑ Moore, Chris (1 October 1996). The Kincora Scandal: Political Cover-Up and Intrigue in Northern Ireland. Marino Books. ISBN   1860230296.
  22. 1 2 3 "Colin Wallace: Any Kincora inquiry 'must have full access'". BBC News . 20 July 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 "Kincora abuse investigation stopped by MI5 says ex-army officer". BBC News . 1 August 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  24. 1 2 "Belfast boys' home abuse victims win legal bid". The Guardian . 17 February 2015.
  25. ↑ "'Catalogue of failures' over Kincora abuse". RTÉ News . 20 January 2017.
  26. ↑ Kearney, Vincent (19 October 2022). "Legal action launched in Mountbatten case" – via RTÉ.ie.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

54°35′46″N5°52′29″W / 54.5961°N 5.8748°W / 54.5961; -5.8748

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.