Claims MI5 stopped abuse investigation in Belfast

NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

A former army intelligence officer has claimed he was told to stop investigating sexual abuse at a boys’ home in Belfast in the 1970s.

Brian Gemmell told the BBC he was ordered to halt his investigation into Kincora Boys’ Home by a senior MI5 officer in 1975, after he presented a report on the allegations.

In 1981, three senior care staff at the east Belfast home were jailed for abusing 11 boys and it has been claimed that people of the “highest profile” were connected.

Mr Gemmell claimed he found out about the abuse through two sources, including an agent called Royal Flush, while he was gathering information about loyalists.

The claims come during a public inquiry in Northern Ireland into institutional child abuse between 1922 and 1995.

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