NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
A high-ranking MI5 officer has rejected claims that child abuse at an infamous Belfast boys’ home was exploited as part of an intelligence operation.
The anonymised deputy director, known only as 9004, also said the UK security service only became aware of abuse at Kincora in 1980, when allegations broke in the media.
He said: “I can certainly deny that we were ever involved in an operation to exploit abuse that was taking place at Kincora for intelligence purposes.”
Officer 9004 was giving evidence via videolink from an undisclosed location to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry which is examining allegations a paedophile ring preyed on vulnerable young boys at the former east Belfast home during the 1970s.
It has long been alleged the security services knew about the abuse but did nothing, and instead used the information to blackmail the prominent people such as politicians, judges, civil servants and police officers who were the perpetrators.
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