Hundreds of files marked “top secret” have been declassified as part of the inquiry into the Kincora boys’ home in which it is alleged the security services blackmailed a paedophile ring that operated there during the Troubles.
The inquiry into the historical scandal heard on Wednesday that the sensitive police files were now in the possession of the tribunal sitting at Banbridge courthouse.
Barrister and counsel to the tribunal, Joseph Aiken, said: “When the inquiry began this was all marked secret. At the request of the inquiry it has all been declassified by the PSNI and made available to the inquiry.”
The abuse at Kincora has been described by Amnesty International as “one of the most disturbing scandals to emerge from the Troubles”. It is alleged MI5 and special branch turned a blind eye to the abuse of boys at the east Belfast home because they were blackmailing the perpetrators to spy on fellow hardline Ulster loyalists.
Addressing the three-person panel heading the inquiry and chaired by retired judge Sir Anthony Hart, Aiken said: “Although it is an established fact that children were abused by staff in Kincora, this inquiry 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.” (more...)
No comments:
Post a Comment