NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
BY LIAM CLARKE – 07 APRIL 2015
In emotional scenes, Richard Kerr – a former Kincora resident who was sexually abused at the boys’ home – has received an apology from the military intelligence officer who tried to expose the abuse.
Brian Gemmell’s words represent the first time Mr Kerr has ever received an apology from the authorities who failed him.
Mr Gemmell was warned off revealing the paedophile activity at the east Belfast home by Ian Cameron, a senior MI5 officer, who told him this was not a matter for the intelligence services or the army to be concerned with. Now Mr Gemmell believes it was part of a cover-up of sex abuse by top people. He suspects that the intelligence services used such dark secrets as a way to control abusers who were politically influential. As a captain, Mr Gemmell put in an official report about Kincora to a senior MI5 officer. But to his astonishment he claims he was ordered to stop digging and forget about it. He now feels that he should have exposed it, whatever the consequences for his army career.
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