Two ex-Kincora boys launch legal action over “MI5” abuser

Posted By: January 26, 2024

IRISH CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING

Distributed to Congress by Irish National Caucus

“The Irish National Caucus has raised the Richard Kerr case in the U.S. Congress since 2021. See his dedicated site— http://www.irishnationalcaucus.org/irish-national-c…case-in-congress

We stand in solidarity with the brave Richard, a Belfast Protestant, and now a U.S. citizen living in Texas.

This article further exposes the abuse he is still suffering, along with another victim, Gary Hoy—all caused and covered up by MI5.”

—Fr. Sean McManus.

Two ex-Kincora boys launch legal action over ‘MI5’ abuser

Irish News. Belfast. Friday, January 26, 2023

Two former residents who allege police officers were blocked from investigating sexual abuse at the notorious Kincora Boys’ Home in Belfast have launched a High Court attempt to have their claims reinstated.

Gary Hoy and Richard Kerr contend that the authorities obstructed inquiries into a pedophile housemaster because of his status as an MI5 agent.

In August last year a judge dismissed part of their civil actions against the PSNI and home secretary.

Lawyers for Mr. Hoy and Mr. Kerr are mounting an appeal against that decision to strike out their claims for negligence and misfeasance in public office.

The challenge had been due to get under way at the High Court yesterday but was put on hold due to time pressures.

Following the adjournment, Mr. Hoy insisted accountability was more important to him than any compensation.

He said: “I was a child and they protected others and left us to those men who robbed us of our childhoods.”

Along with Mr. Kerr, he is suing the chief constable, the Home Office, and the Department of Health over the ordeals they endured after being sent to the home during the 1970s.

The two men are seeking damages in a case which also features claims for assault and battery, and breach of statutory duty.

With liability denied, the defendants dispute responsibility for any violation in the responsibility of care to those targeted at the children’s home which was finally demolished last year.

At the center of the action is the role played by staff member William McGrath, who became known as the ‘Beast of Kincora’.

The senior care worker was jailed in 1981 for abusing boys as part of a pedophile ring operated within the facilities.

McGrath, who died in the early 1990s, also held a leading position in the far-right loyalist movement Tara.

Mr. Hoy and Mr. Kerr have claimed the authorities enabled him to target young victims so that more information about the grouping could be obtained.

The alleged liability went beyond omissions in a duty owed to vulnerable children to actively obstructing police officers from investigating and pursuing McGrath, it was claimed.

The abuse he perpetrated was allegedly allowed to continue specifically because of his role as an MI5 agent.

Lawyers representing the chief constable and home secretary have insisted there was no basis for establishing any malice, and that parental responsibility duties should not be conferred on them in the case. In the preliminary ruling, a judge identified no basis to hold the defendants vicariously liable for the pedophile housemaster’s activities.

He granted the chief constable and home secretary’s applications to strike out both the negligence and misfeasance claims against them on the basis there was no reasonable cause of action.

But Mr. Hoy has vowed to continue his legal fight to have the action heard in full.

[He said]:“I was a child and they protected others and left us to those men who robbed us of our childhoods… I was failed by the security forces and want them to be held to account

The former Kincora resident said he has spent 11 years campaigning for justice, and described a Police Ombudsman report on RUC failures to investigate allegations of sexual abuse at the home as “damning”.

Mr. Hoy added: “I was failed by the security forces and want them to be held to account.

“That is bigger for me than any compensation I will ever get in this case.”

His solicitor, Claire McKeegan of Phoenix Law, confirmed the appeal will be pursued on a later date.

She claimed: “The security forces had a duty of care to young boys who were children in the care of Kincora.

“Their failure to investigate amounts to a breach of that duty.”