Kincora Abuse Victim to Appeal Court Ruling

By Alan Erwin
Belfast Telegraph
April 30, 2016

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/kincora-abuse-victim-to-appeal-court-ruling-34672254.html

Kincora Boys’ Home

Earlier this month the High Court dismissed Gary Hoy's bid for a judicial review into the decision to keep the Kincora scandal probe within the remit of a Stormont-commissioned body.

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But the 54-year-old's legal team will now mount an urgent attempt to have that verdict overturned. Judges at the Court of Appeal yesterday listed the renewed challenge for a hearing next month.

Mr Hoy's solicitor, Claire McKeegan of KRW Law, said later: "The applicant and all survivors of abuse at Kincora are vulnerable individuals and should not have to relive the trauma of that abuse by going through this process more than once.

"They are entitled to an investigation which has the powers to get to the truth."

It is claimed the ongoing Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry sitting in Banbridge is powerless to properly scrutinise a "closed order" surrounding the home.

With MI5 accused of covering up the sexual abuse throughout the 1970s to protect an intelligence-gathering operation, Mr Hoy's team contends that the current arrangements cannot compel the security services to hand over documents or testify.

Calls for full scrutiny of the suspected systemic molestation and prostitution of vulnerable youngsters at Kincora have grown ever since three senior staff were jailed in 1981 for abusing boys in their care.

It has long been suspected that well-known figures within the British establishment, including high-ranking civil servants and senior military officers, were involved.

But the Government has so far refused to include Kincora within the scope of a child abuse inquiry established by Home Secretary Theresa May and headed by New Zealand judge Lowell Goddard.

Despite the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee recommending Justice Goddard's remit be extended to cover the east Belfast care home, Mrs May has said the HIA tribunal being overseen by Sir Anthony Hart is the best forum for examining the allegations.