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8 July 2014

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Belfast’s Kincora scandal and MI5 must be part of Westminster paedophile inquiry – Ken Livingstone

Scandal: When the Kincora affair was first exposed allegations were made against British Establishment figures

KEN LIVINGSTONE, the former Mayor of London and long-time Ireland campaigner, is calling for the east Belfast Kincora Boys’ Home scandal to be included in the official inquiry into allegations of paedophilia against senior members of the British Establishment in Westminster in the 1980s.

Documents alleging child abuse against MPs and senior public figures in the 1980s (when Margaret Thatcher’s Tory party was in power) are among 114 Home Office files on child sex abuse that have been destroyed, ‘lost’ or ‘gone missing’.

The systematic abuse of young boys in the Kincora Boys’ Home in the 1970s and the part played by British Intelligence organisations to keep the scandal under wraps ensured that one side of the murky world of unionist paramilitarism and its links to the crown forces was kept out of the public domain for years.

It all eventually unravelled in the early 1980s.

Kincora William McGrath

At the centre of the affair was Kincora Housemaster William McGrath (pictured). McGrath was the head of loyalist paramilitary group Tara and a man central to the formation of the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in 1971.

McGrath was also closely connected to senior figures in both major unionist parties as well as having links to the Orange Order.

Calling on British Home Secretary Theresa May to extend the British Government inquiry announced on Monday 7 July to include Kincora, former Labour Party MP Ken Livingstone said:

“MI5 weren’t just aware of child abuse at Kincora Boys’ Home – they were monitoring it. They were getting pictures of a judge in one case, politicians, a lot of the Establishment of Northern Ireland going in and abusing these boys.”

Amnesty International later joined the calls for an inquiry to include Kincora.

Adding her voice to Ken Livingstone’s call, Fermanagh & South Tyrone Sinn Féin MP Michelle Gildernew said:

“These allegations are a cause of great concern and need to be thoroughly investigated. 

“The nefarious role of MI5 in Ireland is well-known but these allegations are particularly shocking.”

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