MI5 'halted police child abuse investigation'

Victims of abuse at the Kincora children's home in Northern Ireland have accused
senior members of the security services of blocking police investigations

MI5 blocked police investigations into sexual abuse at a children’s home to protect their intelligence gathering operation, campaigners will tell the High Court today.

Victims of abuse at the Kincora children’s home in Northern Ireland have accused senior members of the security services of colluding in protecting abusers from being investigated or prosecuted.

Campaigners are taking legal action at the High Court in Belfast to force a full independent inquiry with the power to force MI5 witnesses to testify and release documents.

The case is the first to examine allegations of a British state cover-up of abuse at the East Belfast home in the 1970s.

Claims that children were molested for years because police and the British security services were using the home, run by a member of a Protestant paramilitary organisation, to gather intelligence are already subject to a separate inquiry in Northern Ireland, the Historical and Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry, led by Sir Anthony Hart.

But critics of the HIA claim it lacks sufficient powers to get to the heart of the scandal as it may not be able to compel either evidence or witnesses from MI5.

Victims are applying for a judicial review to establish a similar full inquiry in Northern Ireland to the London-based child abuse inquiry, now chaired by Justice Lowell Goddard from New Zealand.  (more...)

MI5 'halted police child abuse investigation'

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