NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
BY CIARAN BARNES – 21 JULY 2014
A firebrand preacher who was a good friend of Rev Ian Paisley has been linked to the abuse of children at Kincora.
Pastor Willie Mullan took his own life in December 1980, less than a year after police started an investigation into the paedophile ring operating at the east Belfast care home for boys.
Sources say the 79-year-old, who was also struggling to come to terms with the death of his wife, shot himself with his legally held weapon after learning he could be arrested.
Mullan, who was never charged, had close links to William McGrath — the sinister Orange Order leader who used his role as housemaster at Kincora to sexually assault dozens of boys.
He was also friendly with Joss Cardwell, an Ulster Unionist councillor who preyed on kids at the home and who died by suicide in 1983 after being |questioned by the RUC.
“There were strong rumours at the time about Willie Mullan’s involvement in Kincora, particularly as he
killed himself not long after the police investigation began,” said a religious source.
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