Kincora Boys' Home

[1] 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.

[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.

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.

[9] 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".

[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.

[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] 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.

[15] 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.

"[20] 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.

[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.

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.