NORTHERN IRELAND
The Guardian
Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent
Wednesday 14 January 2015
Intelligence officers and police with knowledge of the Kincora child abuse scandal in Northern Ireland will not be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act for giving evidence to the historical abuse inquiry, the attorney general for England and Wales has said.
Two former army intelligence officers, Colin Wallace and Brian Gemmel, have claimed they reported abuse at the east Belfast home, which was controlled by a prominent Orangeman and state agent, but were ignored by the authorities. They allege that instead of moving against paedophiles running the home, the security forces blackmailed the Orangeman William McGrath and others to spy on other hardline Ulster loyalists from the 1970s onwards.
In a letter to the inquiry chairman, the attorney general Jeremy Wright QC advises: “No evidence a person may give before the inquiry will be used in evidence against that person in any criminal proceedings or relied upon for the purpose of deciding whether to bring such proceedings against that person … For the avoidance of doubt, I can confirm that the undertakings cover any allegation of an offence arising under the Official Secrets Act.”
Amnesty International welcomed the move. Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty’s Northern Ireland programme director, said: “The allegations surrounding Kincora could scarcely be more disturbing – that MI5 turned a blind eye to child abuse and actively blocked a police investigation, instead using the paedophile ring for its own intelligence-gathering purposes.
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